An Island Off the West Coast of Australia: Multiplex Geography and the Growth of Transnational Telemediated Service Work in Mauritius

At first glance, the notion that Mauritian call centre agents can successfully convince typical American consumers that their country is near Australia seems to be another example of the limited geographic knowledge of the typical American consumer. Mauritius, after all, is a long way from Australia – some 3,500 miles – and has few cultural or political ties to this distant Indian Ocean “neighbor.” In geographical and a cultural proximity Mauritius is much closer to Africa and India or even its former colonial rulers, France and Britain. Yet the idea that call centre agents can claim to be simultaneously off the coasts