Senior Honors thesis--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 26, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2009. / Vita: p. 55. Thesis director: John G. Dale. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-54). Also issued in print.

Even as the numbers of migrants waiting in North Africa to continue their journeys to Europe continue to grow, the social and political consequences of this time spent “en route” remain marginal to conversations around migration across the Mediterranean. There is a focus on migrants’ movement through space, with emphasis on origin and destination, presumed to be Europe, but not much attention paid to the time in between. Rather than centering on how borders regulate, impede, and allow or not, migratory flow, and what happens when European borders are crossed, this dissertation focuses on another of the predominant phenomena to which borders give rise: waiting. This dissertation emerges from the social worlds and subjective transformations that take place in and around the borderlands of the Strait of Gibraltar. These worlds include communities of West African migrants who have become immigrants in Morocco, Moroccan and Spanish day-laborers who work as commodity porters moving back and forth between Morocco and Spain, and activist and mutual aid networks that have emerged around the rapidly growing immigrant community in Tangier, Morocco. Lives lived while waiting, whether in the city of Tangier among im/migrants or in the commodity warehouses that abut the border between Spanish Ceuta and Morocco, form consequential habits that sediment into social life and become fields for potential political claims grounded in communal sentiments. As such, this dissertation explores the consequences of these communal sentiments across the many borders of the Strait of Gibraltar, and draws on intensive fieldwork between 2017 and 2019 in the context of a decade of research in Tangier and Ceuta. It does so through a critical ethnographic analysis exploring the emergent languages, labors, and infrastructures of belonging and difference that emerge among immigrant and migrant communities in Tangier, Morocco and Ceuta, Spain. Theoretically, this dissertation builds from theories of metapragmatic discourse analysis, infrastructural flow and breakdown, and borderland political economies in order to emphasize the worlds emergent along these borders. When seen through the lens of waiting, understanding the growth and transformations of migratory dynamics and border politics in the region means paying more attention to this time spent “en route,” its consequences beyond just the regulation of access to spatial territories, and the categories of belonging and difference that emerge along the way.

Although day laborers are highly visible, as they seek employment, in public street corners or storefronts, their life struggles, including their mental health and social service needs, remain largely unknown to local officials or service providers. This is one of the first studies to directly examine the risk and protective factors impacting Latino Day Laborers’ (LDLs) well-being and substance use and abuse. The study utilized a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) design. Specifically, this study used risk and protective variables identified by LDLs in the initial qualitative phase of the study to quantitatively examine the impact on these factors on LDLs’ well-being and substance use and abuse. Based on a sample of 147 LDLs, the quantitative results indicate that risk factors for well-being include psychological distress, social isolation, and older age; while factors protective of well-being include higher levels of religiosity and sending remittances to family members. In addition, psychological distress was found to be a risk factor for substance abuse. A member checking focus group was conducted to contextualize and validate the quantitative findings with the lived experiences of LDLs. Implications for practice and policy are discussed. / text

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 2, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-96).

xi, 87 p. : col. map / This project explores the factors contributing to and hindering coalition building and cooperation between immigrant day laborers and the building trade unions in Portland, Oregon. The research is based on interviews with local labor and worker center leaders and an examination of public records and media discourse. It draws from a theoretical framework informed by Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and their work on identity politics in new social movements. The research concludes that the lack of full success in this case was the result of a conflicting message that conveyed to workers that they shared a similar identity, while at the same time that they labored in separate industries. As a result, no shared identity was ever established and organized labor continued to view immigrant workers as outsiders. / Committee in charge: Daniel HoSang, Chairperson; Joseph Lowndes, Member; Daniel Tichenor, Member

Nessa dissertação, procuramos discutir o processo de territorialização do que veio a ser instituído em Minas Gerais, a partir da década de 1960, como o Vale do Jequitinhonha. Abordamos esse processo de territorialização em seus contornos coloniais, uma vez que seu sentido conformou as relações sociais de produção particulares que passaram a viabilizar a acumulação de capital com a generalização do trabalho livre. Nesse contexto, instaurou-se no nordeste mineiro uma dinâmica regional de expansão da fazenda agropecuária, fundada na relação de agregação de lavradores, na qual o controle territorial, por meio da possibilidade do emprego direto da violência, condicionou a subordinação do trabalho. Essas relações sociais de produção regionais, por sua vez, passaram a ser objeto da intervenção estatal a partir das décadas de 1960 e 1970. Abordamos essa intervenção como parte do processo de modernização retardatária, movido nacionalmente como esforço de industrialização e de superação de formas de acumulação tidas como arcaicas. Modernização que, por meio da imposição de uma forma determinada de desenvolvimento, fundada na consolidação da propriedade da terra e na formação do trabalhador assalariado, deveria alimentar a indústria em formação no centro-sul do país. Por fim, partimos do processo de expropriação dos antigos lavradores do Vale do Jequitinhonha para observar a transformação dos mesmos em trabalhadores bóias-frias, em condições definidas pelos limites da modernização, que explicita seu caráter crítico. / This thesis discuss the process of territorialization established in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, from the 1960s onwards, the Vale do Jequitinhonha region. We approach this process of territorialization in its colonial boundaries since its sense conformed particular social relations of production which began to enable capital accumulation with free labor generalization. In this context, a regional dynamic of agricultural farm expansion was set up in the northeast of Minas Gerais based on the relation of a particular subordination of the local population (of the agregados) , in which the territorial control, through direct violence, conditioned the labor force exploitation. Eventually, these social relations of regional production became the object of governmental intervention from the 1960s and the 1970s. We see this intervention as part of the nationwide accelerated modernization process, as an effort of industrialization and overcoming accumulation methods regarded as archaic. This was carried out through the imposition of a specific pattern of development, based on the consolidation of land ownership and salaried labor force training, which should supply the newly established industry in the central and southern regions of Brazil. Finally, we focus the expropriation process of former land workers from the Vale do Jequitinhonha to observe their transformation into day-laborers, in conditions defined by the modernization limits, which reveal its critical character.

Nessa dissertação, procuramos discutir o processo de territorialização do que veio a ser instituído em Minas Gerais, a partir da década de 1960, como o Vale do Jequitinhonha. Abordamos esse processo de territorialização em seus contornos coloniais, uma vez que seu sentido conformou as relações sociais de produção particulares que passaram a viabilizar a acumulação de capital com a generalização do trabalho livre. Nesse contexto, instaurou-se no nordeste mineiro uma dinâmica regional de expansão da fazenda agropecuária, fundada na relação de agregação de lavradores, na qual o controle territorial, por meio da possibilidade do emprego direto da violência, condicionou a subordinação do trabalho. Essas relações sociais de produção regionais, por sua vez, passaram a ser objeto da intervenção estatal a partir das décadas de 1960 e 1970. Abordamos essa intervenção como parte do processo de modernização retardatária, movido nacionalmente como esforço de industrialização e de superação de formas de acumulação tidas como arcaicas. Modernização que, por meio da imposição de uma forma determinada de desenvolvimento, fundada na consolidação da propriedade da terra e na formação do trabalhador assalariado, deveria alimentar a indústria em formação no centro-sul do país. Por fim, partimos do processo de expropriação dos antigos lavradores do Vale do Jequitinhonha para observar a transformação dos mesmos em trabalhadores bóias-frias, em condições definidas pelos limites da modernização, que explicita seu caráter crítico. / This thesis discuss the process of territorialization established in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, from the 1960s onwards, the Vale do Jequitinhonha region. We approach this process of territorialization in its colonial boundaries since its sense conformed particular social relations of production which began to enable capital accumulation with free labor generalization. In this context, a regional dynamic of agricultural farm expansion was set up in the northeast of Minas Gerais based on the relation of a particular subordination of the local population (of the agregados) , in which the territorial control, through direct violence, conditioned the labor force exploitation. Eventually, these social relations of regional production became the object of governmental intervention from the 1960s and the 1970s. We see this intervention as part of the nationwide accelerated modernization process, as an effort of industrialization and overcoming accumulation methods regarded as archaic. This was carried out through the imposition of a specific pattern of development, based on the consolidation of land ownership and salaried labor force training, which should supply the newly established industry in the central and southern regions of Brazil. Finally, we focus the expropriation process of former land workers from the Vale do Jequitinhonha to observe their transformation into day-laborers, in conditions defined by the modernization limits, which reveal its critical character.

In the academic field the informal economy is vaguely represented and most of the research is focused on developing countries with many socio-economic issues. The informal economy in the developed world, mainly the European Union and the United States of America, has a minor share in the world's informal economy, as such it is not commonly discussed among academics. Some countries around the world are actively trying to battle this sector to minimalize it and thus minimalize its impact on the state economy and on the individual communities. To implement more effective policies it is important to know which factors are most conducive to the prevalence of the informal economy. Finding those factors became the aim of this paper. Owing to the fact that there is a lack of research conducted in the developed countries about the informal economy the main focus of the thesis is the geographical area of San Diego County, predominantly for its diverse demographics. The factors are identified and analyzed in detail in chapter 4. In "Discussion" the factors are evaluated to reveal the most conducive ones. It has been determined that the most conducive factors are "burdensome regulation" and "individual preferences". Additionally factors that influence the informal economy in San Diego County are "low...