Labor Violations & Human Trafficking
“In the Fields: Labor Violations and Human Trafficking among Latinx Farmworker Families” (Dissertation)
My dissertation examines human trafficking and labor violations among Latinx farmworker families in North Carolina using a mixed methods approach. Specifically, I draw on 47 in-depth interviews, hundreds of hours of ethnographic observations, and existing survey data of North Carolina farmworkers.
The dissertation consists of three substantive papers. The first paper contributes to scholarship on the conceptualization and measurement of human trafficking by focusing on how it unfolds temporally and spatially. Rather than depicting trafficking as a type of migration, I theorize trafficking as a labor violation that intercepts with U.S. and foreign-born farmworkers’ work and migration trajectories.
The second and third papers explain how farmworkers understand and respond to their labor conditions. Specifically, the second paper argues that farmworkers interpret their work responsibilities through ideal worker norms. While these cultural beliefs about work favor men, farmworkers’ responses to work demands are not patterned by gender such that both men and women consent to their labor exploitation.
The final dissertation paper examines how farmworkers cope with the demands of agricultural employment through familial assistance in the fields and produce packing houses. While this unpaid family labor is protective, responsive, and multidirectional, I argue that it is also demanding on those who provide work help and can result in familial conflict.
Research
Economic Incorporation & Mobility
“Passing as Mexicans? Investigating Central American Immigrants’ Wage Trajectories in the United States” (Under review)
A considerable body of literature analyzes the economic incorporation of Latin American immigrants in the United States. Much of this research, however, focuses exclusively on Mexican immigrants or relies on panethnic categories which mask variations among national origin groups. Using data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census as well as 2006-2010 and 2015-2019 American Community Surveys, we examine the wage trajectories of Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran immigrants living in the United States and compare their outcomes with that of Mexican immigrants. Overall, for both men and women, we find a general pattern of a Central American wage advantage relative to Mexicans. While much of Central American men’s wage advantages can be accounted for by citizenship, education, English ability, and occupational sorting, Central American women retain their wage advantages net of these factors. Beyond uncovering this gendered pattern, our results also suggest distinct wage trajectories among Salvadoran men and women and Nicaraguan women relative to their Mexican counterparts. Overall, our study highlights the limitations of relying on panethnic categories and challenges prior studies which implicitly suggest that Central Americans economically “pass” as Mexicans.
Return Migration & Belonging
While prior research has primarily focused on return migrants’ labor market and economic mobility, the social and psychological aspects remain understudied. We explore how these dimensions interact and influence incorporation. We find that although returnees do not necessarily experience economic advancement in Mexico, entry into niche labor markets facilitates their social incorporation and sense of belonging in Mexico. While return to Mexico also provided respondents with relief from racism and legal violence in the United States, they nonetheless experience new forms of discrimination that impede their incorporation in Mexico in gendered ways.
In this chapter, we uncover the substantial losses to return migrants’ time and autonomy as they face social, bureaucratic, and institutional obstacles that hinder their incorporation in Mexico.