ABSTRACT
Workers on the French canal confronted the same geoclimatic and health conditions under which men had suffered in the building of the railroad. The cost in human lives was the most significant fact in the history of the French canal. Phillipe Bunau-Vari11a, a division engineer who later was to assume responsibility for the second French canal effort, described the effects of yellow fever on the stability and behavior of the work force in his recollections. Typically, labor-exporting states have few resources or powers to which they can turn in order to exercise influence over the work and living conditions of their citizens employed outside their jurisdiction. Rarely is a labor-exporting state in a position to provide legal protection to its own citizens while they are working in foreign labor markets. This is particularly true because labor migrations are usually from weaker to stronger states, or from peripheral states to core states.
