Lives on the Line : How the Philippines became the World's Call Center Capital

Dial just about any toll-free number and chances are you''ll be talking to a Filipino. In fact, around the year 2005, the country overtook India as the world''s "voice capital." Lives on the Line argues that this has nothing to do with wages or accents. Rather, as Jeffrey J. Sallaz shows, there is a perfect match between offshored call centers and educated young Filipinos. For Filipina women and gay Filipinos in particular, call centers are veritable lifelines, and their lives tell us much about contemporary capitalism and the future of work.

The call center industry is booming in the Philippines. Around the year 2005, the country overtook India as the world''s "voice capital," and industry revenues are now the second largest contributor to national GDP. In Lives on the Line, Jeffrey J. Sallaz retraces the assemblage of a global market for voice over the past two decades. Drawing upon case studies of sixty Filipino call center workers and two years of fieldwork in Manila, he illustrates how offshore call center jobs represent a middle path for educated Filipinos, who are faced with the dismaying choice to migrate abroad in search of prosperity versus stay at home as an impoverished professional. A rich ethnographic study, this book challenges existing stereotypes regarding offshore service jobs and sheds light upon the reasons that the Philippines has become the world''s favored location for "voice." It looks beyond call centers and beyond India to advance debates concerning global capitalism, the future of work, and the lives of those who labor in offshored jobs.