In early October 2005, just over a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast region of the United States, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin asked local business leaders how he was to ensure that the city was not overrun by Mexican workers. These remarks vocalized the concerns of many regarding Latino immigrant workers to post-Katrina New Orleans. Likewise, they foreshadowed the obstacles faced by Latino reconstruction workers in the city. This dissertation examines Latino day labor participation in New Orleans, Louisiana by focusing on the racialized experiences of immigrant reconstruction workers. There is an established literature on racial/ethnic immigrant labor market inequality, addressing Latino wage penalties and occupational segregation as well as recent studies focusing on the gendered and racialized experiences of Latina and Chicana domestic workers in the U.S. However, established demographic research on day labor participation in the U.S. has failed to capture fully how day laborers experience "race" and how this has impacted their integration into the labor market. The broad questions guiding this dissertation are: "What are the racialized experiences of day laborers?"; "How does the process of racialization shape the work experiences of day laborers?"; "How do day laborers negotiate these experiences and interactions with co-workers, employers, and their community?" This dissertation focused on a 23 month ethnographic research and 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Latino day laborers in post-Katrina New Orleans. This research underscores the crucial role that Latino day laborers play as non-standard workers in a racialized labor market, historically organized along a black/white continuum. The findings demonstrated day laboring is a process that takes place in racialized spaces, where day laborers exert emotional work. Findings also demonstrated how "race" impacts the day-to-day work experiences of day laborers, and how immigration status is a racialized social characteristic that allows for exploitation of immigrant workers. Finally, this dissertation examined the resistance strategies used by day laborers, and their organizing efforts toward achieving social justice in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:22:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos.pdf: 823036 bytes, checksum: 5361a0d8654a8e9dcfd3a49b314e3088 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aims at answering the follow question: how does the production of subjetivity happen in the context of bolivian immigrant labor in the sweatshops in São Paulo? The theme is relevant, considering the conditions of labor exploitation of the bolivian immigrants. The sweatshops in which the exploitation takes places are hired by large brands of the textile industry, through the process of outsourcing. The element of differentiation of this research is present in the theoretical approach itself, since it does not take the concept of identity as an analytical reference. The proposal of this work is to develop the perspective in which the production of subjectivity is not something given a priori, as an immutable essence. Neither is it individual. The subjectivity, composed by heterogeneous elements, is produced in the social sphere. The four plans that are considered as the variables of the research are: labor conditions; legal and political dimension; sociospatial dynamics of the textile production in the city; the functionality of the exploitation of immigrant labor em relation to the selective permeability of the national borders. The methodological approach is qualitative. The techniques used in the research were the interviews and participant-observation, that happen in São Paulo, La Paz (2007 and 2008) and Buenos Aires. The research has also benefit itself from the ethnographic experience from the past years. The results announced suggests that the reproduction of the situation of irregularity, determined by the anachronism of the brazilian legislation, strengthens the construction of an immigrant-illegal-slave-identity that directely affects the production of subjectivity of the bolivian immigrants in São Paulo / Este trabalho busca responder à seguinte questão-problema: de que forma se dá a produção de subjetividade no contexto do trabalho de imigrantes bolivianos nas oficinas de costura em São Paulo? O tema é relevante, considerando as condições de exploração de trabalho às quais estão submetidos os imigrantes. As oficinas nas quais a exploração ocorre são subcontratadas por grandes marcas da indústria têxtil, por meio de práticas terceirizadas. O diferencial da pesquisa demonstra-se na própria abordagem, que não assume o conceito de identidade como referencial de análise. Trabalha-se com a perspectiva de que a subjetivação (ou produção de subjetividade) não é algo dado a priori, essência imutável e tampouco é individual. A subjetividade, composta por elementos heterogêneos, é fabricada no registro do social. Os quatro planos considerados como as variáveis da pesquisa são: condições de trabalho, plano político-jurídico, dinâmica sócio-espacial da produção têxtil na cidade e a funcionalidade da exploração de mão-de-obra imigrante face à porosidade seletiva das fronteiras nacionais. Utiliza-se metodologia de vertente qualititativa. As técnicas utilizadas foram entrevistas e observação-participante, realizadas em São Paulo, na Bolívia (em 2007 e 2008) e em Buenos Aires. A pesquisa também beneficiou-se da experiência etnográfica realizada nos últimos anos. Os resultados anunciados sugerem que a reprodução da situação de irregularidade, condicionada pelo anacronismo da legislação brasileira, reforçam a construção de uma identidade-imigrante-escravo-ilegal que afeta diretamente a produção de subjetividade dos bolivianos

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:57:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos.pdf: 823036 bytes, checksum: 5361a0d8654a8e9dcfd3a49b314e3088 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aims at answering the follow question: how does the production of subjetivity happen in the context of bolivian immigrant labor in the sweatshops in São Paulo? The theme is relevant, considering the conditions of labor exploitation of the bolivian immigrants. The sweatshops in which the exploitation takes places are hired by large brands of the textile industry, through the process of outsourcing. The element of differentiation of this research is present in the theoretical approach itself, since it does not take the concept of identity as an analytical reference. The proposal of this work is to develop the perspective in which the production of subjectivity is not something given a priori, as an immutable essence. Neither is it individual. The subjectivity, composed by heterogeneous elements, is produced in the social sphere. The four plans that are considered as the variables of the research are: labor conditions; legal and political dimension; sociospatial dynamics of the textile production in the city; the functionality of the exploitation of immigrant labor em relation to the selective permeability of the national borders. The methodological approach is qualitative. The techniques used in the research were the interviews and participant-observation, that happen in São Paulo, La Paz (2007 and 2008) and Buenos Aires. The research has also benefit itself from the ethnographic experience from the past years. The results announced suggests that the reproduction of the situation of irregularity, determined by the anachronism of the brazilian legislation, strengthens the construction of an immigrant-illegal-slave-identity that directely affects the production of subjectivity of the bolivian immigrants in São Paulo / Este trabalho busca responder à seguinte questão-problema: de que forma se dá a produção de subjetividade no contexto do trabalho de imigrantes bolivianos nas oficinas de costura em São Paulo? O tema é relevante, considerando as condições de exploração de trabalho às quais estão submetidos os imigrantes. As oficinas nas quais a exploração ocorre são subcontratadas por grandes marcas da indústria têxtil, por meio de práticas terceirizadas. O diferencial da pesquisa demonstra-se na própria abordagem, que não assume o conceito de identidade como referencial de análise. Trabalha-se com a perspectiva de que a subjetivação (ou produção de subjetividade) não é algo dado a priori, essência imutável e tampouco é individual. A subjetividade, composta por elementos heterogêneos, é fabricada no registro do social. Os quatro planos considerados como as variáveis da pesquisa são: condições de trabalho, plano político-jurídico, dinâmica sócio-espacial da produção têxtil na cidade e a funcionalidade da exploração de mão-de-obra imigrante face à porosidade seletiva das fronteiras nacionais. Utiliza-se metodologia de vertente qualititativa. As técnicas utilizadas foram entrevistas e observação-participante, realizadas em São Paulo, na Bolívia (em 2007 e 2008) e em Buenos Aires. A pesquisa também beneficiou-se da experiência etnográfica realizada nos últimos anos. Os resultados anunciados sugerem que a reprodução da situação de irregularidade, condicionada pelo anacronismo da legislação brasileira, reforçam a construção de uma identidade-imigrante-escravo-ilegal que afeta diretamente a produção de subjetividade dos bolivianos