Social Justice

Overview: Migrant Labor and Contested Public Space

Border crossers from Mexico into the United States are perceived as illegal or illegitimate. [...] conceived, a militarized border takes the form of National Guard postings in "Operation Jump Start," pilot-less drone aircraft, and other variations on an electronic battlefield.

Immigration On the Public Mind: Immigration Reform in the Obama Administration

[...] for undocumented immigrants wishing to become U.S. citizens, Obama administration reforms involve sanctions - penalties and taxes, learning English, and waiting behind others who "played by the rules." According to Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Committee on Migration, the Obama summit meeting on immigration "will tell us whether the administration is serious about enacting comprehensive immigration reform this year or is perhaps gett...

The Intersections of the Economic and Cultural in U.S. Labor's Pro-Migrant Politics

[...] I discuss how economic interests - the need to recruit new union members, particularly among migrants, and to protect labor standards - shape the new labor platform on immigration policies in the U.S. Then I draw attention to the importance of cultural explanations, focusing on values, identities, and sentiments. According to Bacon (2004), she related the struggle carried on by many immigrants today to her grandparents' efforts to build a home in the United States. Equally important, ...

Strong-Arming Exploitable Labor: The State and Immigrant Workers in the Post-Katrina Gulf Coast

Penalties were imposed on employers who knowingly hired undocumented laborers. Because they employed farm workers through the SAW and RAW programs, farmers benefited most from IRCA.\n Barriers imposed by employers, who police the movements of their workers and threaten them with deportation, complicate estimates of the size of these populations.

Shared Social Space and Strategies to Find Work: An Exploratory Study of Mexican Day Laborers in Freehold, N.J.

In 2008, President Bush signed a bill authorizing construction of a 700-mile wall along the U.S.\n The first concept, known as spatial practice or perceived space, involves social practices that human actors have imposed on the world in accordance with the needs of the market economy, the political system, and the dominant culture. By presenting an image of cleanliness and reducing negative stereotypes historically associated with its absence, the Mexican day laborers who gathered at las vía...

Whose Backyard? Boundary Making in Nimby Opposition to Immigrant Services

[...] they pressure governments to take actions that restrict immigrant uses of public places and services. [...] members of NIMBY movements engage, individually and collectively, in threats, intimidation, isolation, marginalization, and violence against immigrants inhabiting public places and using publicly supported services.

Sanctions As Everyday Resistance to Welfare Reform

In supporting welfare reform, a coalition of liberal and conservative advocates for abolishing the long-standing entitlement program for the poor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, capitalized on and fostered racist and sexist stereotypes of black and brown "welfare queens" living off of the hard work of the white working and middle classes. [...] as O'Connor (2001) argues, the writing of prominent social scientists, both liberal and conservative (Ellwood, 1988; Murray, 1984), legitim...

Mexican Border Crossers: The Mexican Body in Immigration Discourse

[...] an abstract, metaphorical 'border' has gained widespread currency in academic writing. ..but this usage is rarely tied to the U.S.-Mexico border. [...] a discussion about the U.S.-Mexico border as site-specific text needs to incorporate conceptions of the border, border crossing, and border crossers into a metaphorical and rhetorical paradigm. [...] the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Hazelton's anti-immigrant ordinance, but it highlights the precarious reality of the Mexican body in U...

From Traitor to Collaborator: Nepali Social Action in the Context of Immigration, Transnationalism, and Diaspora

By creating an innovative transnational development project, this group has attempted to break down stereotypes and reverse the negative connotations attached to the word "immigrants." Since the Nepali community is a minority even within immigrant groups in the United States, we are often seen as passive people attempting to maintain our identity in the U.S. by promoting our "exotic" culture and heritage.