DAY LABOR HAS BECOME A VISIBLE AND VITAL COMPONENT OF THE ECONOMY overall band a major element of... more DAY LABOR HAS BECOME A VISIBLE AND VITAL COMPONENT OF THE ECONOMY overall band a major element of nonstandard employment strategies for disenfranchised prospective workers. For migrant workers, particularly men, day labor serves as an important means to employment, offering them a chance to find work despite barriers such as immigration status or lack of well-paid work in the primary economy (Valenzuela, 2003; Catanzarite, 2003). Informal day labor, in which prospective workers congregate daily in public spaces such as street corners to solicit work, is the focus of this article. We will examine how Mexican day laborers struggle to negotiate two contradictory demands: the need to present themselves visibly in public spaces, such as parking lots and sidewalks, to attract the notice of potential employers, and the need to avoid provoking whites in a town that has an organized opposition to the presence of Latin migrants. Using participant observation data and structured interviews, this article examines the strategies Mexican men use to negotiate survival while presenting themselves in public to find work. We argue that migrant men are conscious of their marginalized role in the shared social space of a particular town, and regularly develop strategies to minimize the potential for being forcibly removed from a social space where they are subordinate, but for which they are dependent to sustain economic survival (Lim 2004; Soja 1989; Lefebvre, 1991). Key in the strategy for negotiating this social space is the presentation of self as clean, quiet, and orderly, qualities that dominant white citizens would presumably embrace.
DAY LABOR HAS BECOME A VISIBLE AND VITAL COMPONENT OF THE ECONOMY overall band a major element of... more DAY LABOR HAS BECOME A VISIBLE AND VITAL COMPONENT OF THE ECONOMY overall band a major element of nonstandard employment strategies for disenfranchised prospective workers. For migrant workers, particularly men, day labor serves as an important means to employment, offering them a chance to find work despite barriers such as immigration status or lack of well-paid work in the primary economy (Valenzuela, 2003; Catanzarite, 2003). Informal day labor, in which prospective workers congregate daily in public spaces such as street corners to solicit work, is the focus of this article. We will examine how Mexican day laborers struggle to negotiate two contradictory demands: the need to present themselves visibly in public spaces, such as parking lots and sidewalks, to attract the notice of potential employers, and the need to avoid provoking whites in a town that has an organized opposition to the presence of Latin migrants. Using participant observation data and structured interviews, this article examines the strategies Mexican men use to negotiate survival while presenting themselves in public to find work. We argue that migrant men are conscious of their marginalized role in the shared social space of a particular town, and regularly develop strategies to minimize the potential for being forcibly removed from a social space where they are subordinate, but for which they are dependent to sustain economic survival (Lim 2004; Soja 1989; Lefebvre, 1991). Key in the strategy for negotiating this social space is the presentation of self as clean, quiet, and orderly, qualities that dominant white citizens would presumably embrace.
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Papers by L. Kelly
Using participant observation data and structured interviews, this article examines the strategies Mexican men use to negotiate survival while presenting themselves in public to find work. We argue that migrant men are conscious of their marginalized role in the shared social space of a particular town, and regularly develop strategies to minimize the potential for being forcibly removed from a social space where they are subordinate, but for which they are dependent to sustain economic survival (Lim 2004; Soja 1989; Lefebvre, 1991). Key in the strategy for negotiating this social space is the presentation of self as clean, quiet, and orderly, qualities that dominant white citizens would presumably embrace.
Using participant observation data and structured interviews, this article examines the strategies Mexican men use to negotiate survival while presenting themselves in public to find work. We argue that migrant men are conscious of their marginalized role in the shared social space of a particular town, and regularly develop strategies to minimize the potential for being forcibly removed from a social space where they are subordinate, but for which they are dependent to sustain economic survival (Lim 2004; Soja 1989; Lefebvre, 1991). Key in the strategy for negotiating this social space is the presentation of self as clean, quiet, and orderly, qualities that dominant white citizens would presumably embrace.