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Article: Child labor: myths, theories and facts.
- Article from:
- Journal of International Affairs
- Article date:
- September 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Columbia University School of International Public Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from the academic work in this area is that child labor tends to be a phenomenon related to poverty and difficult social conditions rather than the perverse preferences of the parents."
The discussion on child labor is very often, and understandably so, charged with emotional content. Activists throughout the world typically offer a picture of impoverished boys and girls working under hazardous conditions for next-to-nothing wages. This depiction, however, may lead to confusion by mixing issues that need to be analytically differentiated. Exploitation, understood as inhumane working conditions, is something to be ...