Papers by Kathleen Sexsmith
Latinx Farmworkers in the Eastern United States, 2020
Latinx Farmworkers in the Eastern United States, 2020
International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2020
As national borders tighten against undocumented migrants, agricultural employers throughout Nort... more As national borders tighten against undocumented migrants, agricultural employers throughout North America have pushed governments for easier access to a legalized temporary farm workforce. Some U.S. farmers and policymakers are seeking to expand the country’s temporary agricultural guest worker program (H-2A visa). Canada’s longstanding Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program has been proposed on an international scale as an example of best practices because it fulfills employer demands for a stable workforce, enables state control over migration flows and, at least on paper, safeguards workers’ rights. However, researchers have documented systemic violations of workers’ rights in both countries. How do outcomes for legalized temporary migrant farmworkers in Canada compare to those in the United States? This paper addresses an empirical gap in the literature by rigorously comparing agricultural guest worker programs in Canada and the United States. We analyze how guestworker immigrati...
ASEAN has grown from one among many developing regions seeking the attention of international inv... more ASEAN has grown from one among many developing regions seeking the attention of international investors to a region of choice for many top-tier Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). These MNEs from across the world and representing a diverse set of sectors, industries and business activities, play a prominent role in the region, and will continue to do so in the future. ASEAN is the only developing region with a significant and diverse level of regional integration and value chains, in large part led by both foreign and its own MNEs. The “ASEAN at 50: A Historic Milestone for FDI and MNEs in ASEAN” publication highlights the astounding progress of the region in attracting FDI over the 50 years since ASEAN’s inception. The Report traces the contours of this transformation and the role of MNEs involved: from a poor region with little FDI, trading primarily in commodities to one ready to embrace the digital age.
International Journal of the Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2020
As national borders tighten against undocumented migrants, agricultural employers throughout Nort... more As national borders tighten against undocumented migrants, agricultural employers throughout North America have pushed governments for easier access to a legalized temporary farm workforce. Some U.S. farmers and policymakers are seeking to expand the country’s temporary agricultural guest worker program (H-2A visa). Canada’s longstanding Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program has been proposed on an international scale as an example of best practices because it fulfills employer demands for a stable workforce, enables state control over migration flows and, at least on paper, safeguards workers’ rights. However, researchers have documented systemic violations of workers’ rights in both countries. How do outcomes for legalized temporary migrant farmworkers in Canada compare to those in the United States? This paper addresses an empirical gap in the literature by rigorously comparing agricultural guest worker programs in Canada and the United States. We analyze how guestworker immigrati...
Women and men have not benefited equally from the increased trade of agricultural commodities and... more Women and men have not benefited equally from the increased trade of agricultural commodities and the rise of foreign investment in agriculture. Gender inequalities in agriculture persist in the 21st century, and tend to be exacerbated by trade and foreign investment. Two broad agendas have emerged in response to global calls for more sustainable trade and more responsible investment in agriculture. The first, largely targeted at the private sector, are represented by the array of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), such as fair trade labels. The second, largely targeted at governments, are the multitude of guidelines on responsible investment in agriculture, such as the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGTs). In this policy brief, we explore how global standards and guidelines contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and whether more can be done through these instruments to improve the situation of wom...
ASEAN has grown from one among many developing regions seeking the attention of international inv... more ASEAN has grown from one among many developing regions seeking the attention of international investors to a region of choice for many top-tier Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). These MNEs from across the world and representing a diverse set of sectors, industries and business activities, play a prominent role in the region, and will continue to do so in the future. ASEAN is the only developing region with a significant and diverse level of regional integration and value chains, in large part led by both foreign and its own MNEs. The “ASEAN at 50: A Historic Milestone for FDI and MNEs in ASEAN” publication highlights the astounding progress of the region in attracting FDI over the 50 years since ASEAN’s inception. The Report traces the contours of this transformation and the role of MNEs involved: from a poor region with little FDI, trading primarily in commodities to one ready to embrace the digital age.
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2021
violence. At the same time, the media fed into cultural notions of Black violence that were taken... more violence. At the same time, the media fed into cultural notions of Black violence that were taken up by many of the Korean shop owners. Chapter Three further explores the role of class in the formation of racist antagonisms through the illustration of the media’s role in reifying culture as a factor around which racist ideologies are formed. In this important chapter, Park shows how both Blacks and Koreans use a cultural racism framework as a basis for social and business interactions and often see culture as the dominant factor in the other group’s successes or failures. Part II culminates in a discussion of the triangulation of race, class, and culture and the interaction of these factors in the conflict between Koreans and Blacks. In Part III of the book, Park discusses the relations between Blacks, Koreans, and Latinos following the 1992 unrest. The inclusion of Latinos and the analysis of their roles as workers, customers, and inhabitants of South LA expands both the groups of ...
Women and men have not benefited equally from the increased trade of agricultural commodities and... more Women and men have not benefited equally from the increased trade of agricultural commodities and the rise of foreign investment in agriculture. Gender inequalities in agriculture persist in the 21st century, and tend to be exacerbated by trade and foreign investment. Two broad agendas have emerged in response to global calls for more sustainable trade and more responsible investment in agriculture. The first, largely targeted at the private sector, are represented by the array of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), such as fair trade labels. The second, largely targeted at governments, are the multitude of guidelines on responsible investment in agriculture, such as the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGTs). In this policy brief, we explore how global standards and guidelines contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and whether more can be done through these instruments to improve the situation of wom...
Agriculture and Human Values, 2021
This paper analyzes how industrial agricultural production and an exclusionary immigration regime... more This paper analyzes how industrial agricultural production and an exclusionary immigration regime produce an embodied form of precarity among an undocumented immigrant labor force in the New York dairy industry, a much-celebrated engine of rural economic growth. In this industry, immigrant workers settle for years at a time, forming ethnic enclaves from which employers source workers for low-wage, exhausting, dangerous, year-round jobs. While much of the literature on migrant worker precarity has focused on temporary, insecure, flexible, and informal workers, this paper adds to this literature by analyzing how the permanence and regularity of dairy farming shape the embodied dimensions of worker precarity. The analysis shows how ‘everyday deportability’ (De Genova in Migrant “illegality” and deportability in everyday life. Annu Rev Anthropol 31(1):419–447, 2002), a weak regulatory structure, and the particularities of the production process combine to shape severe forms of physical ...
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2021
violence. At the same time, the media fed into cultural notions of Black violence that were taken... more violence. At the same time, the media fed into cultural notions of Black violence that were taken up by many of the Korean shop owners. Chapter Three further explores the role of class in the formation of racist antagonisms through the illustration of the media’s role in reifying culture as a factor around which racist ideologies are formed. In this important chapter, Park shows how both Blacks and Koreans use a cultural racism framework as a basis for social and business interactions and often see culture as the dominant factor in the other group’s successes or failures. Part II culminates in a discussion of the triangulation of race, class, and culture and the interaction of these factors in the conflict between Koreans and Blacks. In Part III of the book, Park discusses the relations between Blacks, Koreans, and Latinos following the 1992 unrest. The inclusion of Latinos and the analysis of their roles as workers, customers, and inhabitants of South LA expands both the groups of ...
Agriculture and Human Values, 2021
This paper analyzes how industrial agricultural production and an exclusionary immigration regime... more This paper analyzes how industrial agricultural production and an exclusionary immigration regime produce an embodied form of precarity among an undocumented immigrant labor force in the New York dairy industry, a much-celebrated engine of rural economic growth. In this industry, immigrant workers settle for years at a time, forming ethnic enclaves from which employers source workers for low-wage, exhausting, dangerous, year-round jobs. While much of the literature on migrant worker precarity has focused on temporary, insecure, flexible, and informal workers, this paper adds to this literature by analyzing how the permanence and regularity of dairy farming shape the embodied dimensions of worker precarity. The analysis shows how ‘everyday deportability’ (De Genova in Migrant “illegality” and deportability in everyday life. Annu Rev Anthropol 31(1):419–447, 2002), a weak regulatory structure, and the particularities of the production process combine to shape severe forms of physical ...
Journal of Agromedicine, 2021
OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study were to analyze Latino/a immigrant mushroom workers' pe... more OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study were to analyze Latino/a immigrant mushroom workers' perceptions of how the workplace environment shapes occupational safety and health, examine whether and how those perceptions differ by gender, and identify future areas for research on occupational safety and health in the mushroom industry. METHODS Researchers conducted structured interviews with 15 women and 45 men on 6 Pennsylvania mushroom farms to obtain their descriptions and perspectives of safety and health risk factors in their workplaces. RESULTS Approximately one-third of respondents had suffered an injury at work, and nearly half felt there are workplace factors that affect their health and safety. The study found that Latino/a mushroom farmworkers perceive risks are posed by the indoor infrastructure of mushroom production houses, including poorly maintained wooden walkways and cool indoor temperatures, and by the organization of mushroom production work, including the application of chemicals including pesticides, physical demands of the job, use of small knives, contact with compost, and the piece rate payment system. Workers commonly discussed back pain and believed it was associated with the organization of work. Women in the sample were more likely to be concerned about slips and falls than men and less likely to be concerned about aches and pains. CONCLUSION Mushroom farm infrastructure and the specific demands of the jobs pose occupational safety and health risks to Latino/a farmworkers that merit further study to develop adequate public health interventions. Future research should obtain gender-disaggregated objective reports of injury, aches and pains, and discomfort and test for relationships between these reports and the indoor infrastructure and conditions of mushroom production work.
Journal of International Business Policy, 2021
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 by all UN member states and have be... more The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 by all UN member states and have been embraced by many multinational enterprises (MNEs) and international NGOs. They created a 'hybrid governance' platform in which companies, governments, NGOs, and knowledge institutes can work on achieving common goals through targeted action and serve as the leading global sustainable development framework until 2030. By the year 2020, however, progress towards the goals proved slow, prompting the UN to announce a 'Decade of Action'. The slow or limited adoption and implementation of the SDG Agenda by MNEs-in close interaction with government policies-is one of the root causes for delayed progress. The question is no longer 'why' MNEs should develop sustainability strategies, but rather 'how'. A number of related questions arise. What have been the roles of MNEs in progress towards the SDGs, what is needed from them in the future, and what can be the role of international business (IB) scholarship in shaping discussion and action? This Special Issue tackles these questions from four angles: (1) identifying and helping to fill theoretical gaps in IB research on the SDGs; (2) asking which SDGs and targets provide promising venues for societally relevant IB research topics; (3) assessing and helping to fill empirical gaps by using, complementing, and upgrading relevant SDG indicators; and (4) showing how IB research and policy practice can become better aligned.
Journal of Southern History, 2019
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Papers by Kathleen Sexsmith