Day laborers are a visible indication of an increasingly problematic immigration policy in the U.S. Their presence in area parking lots has agitated local residents, who demand action by municipalities. This thesis explores the issue of day labor waiting sites in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. region and proposes a physical design solution to help integrate these sites into existing neighborhoods. A literature review provides background in plaza form and history, as well as some theories on immigration and assimilation. The case study examines a publicly-funded day labor waiting center. Lessons learned from this case study, as well as site analysis and a review of user needs, are then applied to the final design. The design takes the resilient public space type of the plaza and adapts it to the day laborers' unique set of requirements, resulting in a multi-functional space that serves a diverse set of demands. / Master of Landscape Architecture

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.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, lapses in federal policy-making and a lack of state level enforcement paved the way for employer exploitation of predominantly Latino migrant workers, transforming working-class Latino newcomers into the newest class of storm victims in post-Katrina New Orleans. In essence, a "rebuild above all else" recovery scenario took hold between 2005-2007 in which immediate reconstruction of the city took priority over the participation of local, African-American workers and the protection of immigrant worker rights. Despite their disadvantaged position, however, migrant workers did not remain passive victims to injustice but actively organized against employer abuse and intimidation by law enforcement and immigration officials. Latino worker activists and their allies sternly rejected the “rebuild above all else” recovery model championed by local, state and federal government policies and sought to carve out an alternative rebuilding model that respected immigrant labor rights.

This essay attempts to propose an art practice based on an ethical and aesthetic relation of author, subject, and viewer. This relationship is productive of results that are seen as critical to a precise, useful, and ethical representation of social problems. / text