ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at an alternative way to approach the delocalization issue, that of labour flexibility as opposed to production transfer to low-labour-cost countries. The resulting new configuration of the organization of production is here called ‘inverse’ delocalization. The research question addressed is: Do the industrial district (ID) entrepreneurs prefer to move the production, or to move immigrants into the Western IDs? The case of Arzignano is presented, as an interesting second-best solution to the alternative of moving capital to reach lower labour costs abroad, considered here the standard approach chosen by Italian industrial districts facing the opening of the economy and entering a globalized world. In our contribution, it is argued that this second-best solution offers some answers to the problem of district social and economic embeddedness. The chapter is structured as follows: Section 7.2 describes briefly the characteristics of the leather tanning industry. Section 7.3 presents the case of the Arzignano leather tanning industry, involved in a process of ‘inverse’ delocalization, which is commented on in Section 7.4. Section 7.5 concludes the chapter.
