Central American labor migration
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Undocumented Gender-Based Exploitation of Domestic Workers in the US
Central American labor migration
Introduction- 240
The undocumented domestic work in the US is gradually expanding despite the nationwide efforts to advocate for the fair working conditions of the informal laborers. Most of them are female immigrants from Latin America who work in the US as nannies and cleaners. Over time, the job has been reserved for poor women from ethnic minorities from Latin America, thus, gendered and racialized. The workers face numerous constraints, such as fewer resources, gender, racial discrimination, and meager pay. Currently, the country has over two million domestic workers, diverse and scattered across the country, the majority being immigrants and women of color. Their work varies from housecleaning, serving as health aides and nannies while earning a salary of less than $13 per hour. The work environment in the context of Central American labor migration primarily entails restrictions placed upon workers in the informal sector, such as the denial of rights of movement and freedom of association. Movements such as the National Domestic Workers Alliance (N.D.W.A) have come out lately to advocate for the improvement of the working conditions of the undocumented workers. Their efforts are forthcoming. Domestic workers in the US comprised of ethnic minorities experience segregation, poor working conditions, and limited access to social services as a result of poor socio-economic standards dysfunctional labor markets, and lack of formal training in their motherland, which they hope to overcome as the advocacy work of human rights movements and feminist groups including CAAAV and N.D.W.A. continues.
Challenges Undocumented Workers Encounter in the US
Segregation in Wages and Compensation
Segregation against undocumented immigrants in the US takes the form of wages, gender, and race, among other aspects. There is a wide wage gap between the undocumented immigrants in the US and the native workers with similar skills. The low job status is highly attributed to a lack of legal status in the country. In turn, lacking legal status limits job options and lowers the perceived productivity of immigrant workers. Aside from the legal matters, differences in educational backgrounds also contribute to the segregation of the unauthorized workers. However, compared with documented workers’ earnings, their undocumented counterparts continue to receive lesser wages, even though the gap reduces with the advancement in the undocumented workers’ education (XXX).
Another reason as to attribute to the marginalized compensation status for the work of undocumented workers is their weaker bargaining power, which subsequently results in pay that is below market price. There are similarly high chances that the unregistered workers possess lower skills, including mental and physical health. Finally, being undocumented inhibits the ability of workers to optimally exploit their work and productivity potential.(XX). Subsequently, individuals working without a valid license or permit in the US end up occupying jobs that do not adequately match their productive potential. Critically, both the US economy and the individual workers who are not yet documented lose in the ongoing segregating policies regarding workers’ compensation.
Poor Working Conditions
Working conditions entail factors that increase comfort and convenience during tasks that constitute one’s job. For instance, a worker experiences comfort when given enough physical and psychological space. The psychological space is further determined by the nature of supervision and the freedom to make decisions and chose among options. Other attributes of the work environment include minimal disturbance/distraction, and the availability of safe working tools and equipment. Few undocumented workers in the US work under the right conditions since the law does not currently provide for their interests. (XXX). Majorly, the lack of adequate working conditions results from their perceived submission and low bargaining power in the labor market. Many female ethnic minorities who suffer in the hands of American informal employers end up losing their health and sometimes, lose lives because of the desire to improve their economic situation. It is important to note that immigrants do not always find themselves in such unwelcome work scenarios. Sometimes, they opt to confront the hazardous physical and psychological conditions because no other viable economic decision is available at their disposal.
Significant ways in which immigrant workers find themselves in hazards include traveling to the US for informal work and the harsh environment at work. Recent publications indicate that hundreds of immigrants perish across the US-Mexico border while going to the US, where they aspire to get employed. (XX) Fatalities at the workplace are also on the rise. The latest fatal occupational injuries census revealed that immigrant workers are 15 percent more predisposed to severe injuries while undertaking their job compared to the native-born Americans. Additionally, the power imbalance between the undocumented immigrants is the reason behind the workers’ decisions to take risks of endangering their health by accepting to work in the job conditions they find in their stations. Generally, the unregistered employees in the US are vulnerable to harm due to the lack of adequate legal measures to protect them.
Restrictions and Lack of Access to Social Services
Immigrant workers are highly restricted from accessing essential services on different grounds, mostly because they are merely undocumented. The violation of immigrants’ rights has increased in the past few years, reaching a peak during President Trump’s reign. Notably, the “zero-tolerance policy,” that the current administration announced in April 2018 mandated that all immigrants entering the country should be charged as a felon and thus, incarcerated. Since the US law does not allow children to be held for 20 days alongside a felon parent, they are forcibly separated from their parents at the border and forced to live in isolation for a couple of days. Their state of isolation reduces family ties and leads to the unexpected separation of family members.
When working as nannies and house attendants, among other jobs, women of color are strongly prohibited from free movement and association with others. They spent most of their time in the restricted workplace conditions without freedom of choice, liberty, and expression. They hardly access essential services and social amenities, including proper treatment and quality education for their children. Finally, access to safety benefits, the unpredictability of working hours, and the lack of safety net create a vulnerability that now defined a vast percentage of undocumented workers in the US. According to the New York Times, the ongoing limitations of domestic workers’ rights continue alongside the unrelenting struggles to revive the dignity of this informal sector. It is thus, expected that in 2030, there would be a massive demand for the very workers the country is mishandling and that if the citizens continue to neglect their fundamental freedoms, they will struggle to find their labor.
Factors leading to Central American Labor Migration
Poor Socio-economic Standards in Latin America
Despite the hardships and restrictions in the US surrounding the informal employment of Latinos and other ethnic minorities, the country continues to record a considerable influx of immigrants in search of jobs as nannies, health aides, and house attendants. One of the main reasons for the immigration of individuals in search of domestic work in the US is the high level of poverty in Latin America. Most of the citizens in most countries live below the $4 poverty line, which makes life generally hard for many households. Despite the implementation of numerous poverty eradication programs in the region, the problem remains inequality and marginalization in the distribution of necessities. To make matters worse, some rich people have reportedly been benefiting from those programs at the ordeal of the poor people. Such a situation makes it challenging to implement eatable poverty eradication programs, and the consequent effect is the increase of immigrants traveling to the US.
Generally, socio-economic policies in Latin American countries are less effective than the parallel universal policies in the US. The immigrants find it hard to cope with the hardships in their own countries and opt for “better” pay in America. The workers only realize their state of marginalization upon arriving in their target country for work. However, still, they are never willing to leave whenever they reflect on the poverty situation back at home. Finally, the contribution of undocumented workers’ salaries to their native economy is significant. When they have left their countries, they automatically become assets even if they were liabilities to their own countries initially. It is evident that for as long as undocumented workers continue to reside in the US, they are better off in terms of their socio-economic status than their counterparts who remained home.
Dysfunctional Labor Markets in Latin America
The state of labor markets in Latin America is another contributor to the nation of immigrants in the US. High levels of rigidity and informality characterize them. In turn, the laborers are highly vulnerable to shock and difficulties in adjustment. When economic inconsistencies occur, such as the current Covid-19, which is a global pandemic, employees in the informal sector are vulnerable to the loss of jobs which they might not regain later in the post-COVID-19 era. Likewise, the formal sector workers find it a challenge as some of them are issued with automatic unpaid full-month leaves.
The instability of labor markets inhibits the effectiveness of the poverty policy programs in the region, which is intended to extend coverage to the families that are in dire need. Another challenge is the uncertainty of whether the accumulation of human capital among poverty-stricken households can translate into increased income and the net transfers gained from the conditional cash transfers (CCTs).T the unwelcome policy issues are the core factors affecting the coping ability of citizens in Latin American countries, which is why most immigrants opt to move to the US for more promising employment opportunities. In this regard, some immigrants may prefer leaving formal jobs in their native countries to take up informal jobs in the US.
Lack of Formal Training
Formal training is rare in the Latin American region compared to the state of higher education in the US. The US boasts among the leading global official training countries with the majority of international students schooling in the country. Although the educational standards of the Latin American region have improved significantly in the recent past, there is still a considerable gap between those countries and America. As such, finding opportunities for training in the formal sector is still scarce for most immigrants. Before With such an educational background, it is difficult for them to match the US job requirements whenever they are searching for job opportunities.
In terms of remuneration and compensation, the US is still better in terms of paying informal workers compared to the Latin American region, only that what they get is too little going by the national standards. In turn, they prefer sticking to the US to take up jobs, which they would find no other similar opportunities when otherwise left. It is logical to conclude that the plight of immigrant workers in the US is both systemic and systematic. Its systemic nature results from the fact that the meager salary is only perceived so in the US, but translated to the Latin American conditions, it is substantial. On the other hand, the challenges are systematic in that several factors combine progressively in the disfavor of the undocumented immigrants.
The Role of Justice Movements in Protecting Undocumented Workers
Various feminists, as well as labor organizations, have been advocating for immigrants’ rights at the workplace in the US, particularly women. One such organization is the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV). CAAAV is an anti-racist organization based in New York. It works in the best interest of the diverse and poor working-class immigrants from Asians employed in the informal sector in the US. The organization aims at building grassroots community power to impact the work-related policies and regulations among the institutions that affect the immigrants’ lives in America. Most of the CAAAV agents are volunteers. The main goal of the movement is to advocate for better working policies for the immigrants working in the US.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance (N.D.W.A.), on the other hand, works with the mission of promoting recognition and respect as well as increasing the inclusivity of the ethnic minorities working in the US. The majority of the N.D.W.A. agents are people of color working on a volunteer basis. The movement receives sponsorship from more than 60 affiliate organizations, as well as local chapters and numerous other members. The workers’ rights organization is recognized across the US as the leading and most vocal in terms of advocating for fairness and dignity for the millions of domestic workers in the country.
Undocumented individuals who work in the informal sector of the US are currently hoping for a better future of their career because of the commitment of the mentioned rights movements. The situation is attributed to the commitment portrayed by such organizations. Reports project a rise in demand for the domestic workers by 2030, courtesy of the N.D.W.A. dedication. The movement dwells on the three major domains in its quest for bettering the workers’ conditions. They include economic, political, and disruptive. Through such themes, it is possible to revive the condition of the undocumented immigrants in the US by improving their salaries, working conditions, and dignity in general.
Conclusion
Central American labor migration has led to a large number of immigrants in the US taking up domestic work, especially working as nannies and home attendants, among other similar jobs. The majority of them are people of color, particularly undocumented female workers from Latin America. In turn, the immigrants find themselves in situations that increase their vulnerability to adversities such as segregation, poor working conditions, and lack of access to essential social services. Even though the workers are recognized under US law, they endure the hardships with the hopes that their rights will be guaranteed in the near future. Among the significant challenges that trigger the influx of undocumented workers into the states of America include poor socio-economic standards in Latin America. Such conditions include the high poverty level and unsatisfactory employment and compensation policies. Secondly, dysfunctional labor markets increase Latinos’ chances of leaving their home countries in search of better employment patterns in the United States. Despite the adversities in the US, the employees can secure relatively long-term jobs and pay better than the conditions back at home. Another factor is the lack of formal training for most immigrants. The low level of training is attributed to the educational priorities of the Latin American countries. This paper has identified major CAAAV and N.D.W.A. as the two major organizations advocating for undocumented workers’ rights in the US. Their efforts are forthcoming. It is recommended that undocumented workers cooperate across the states in the country to revive their work-related situations in the future.
References
F1. Laureen Hilgers, “The New Labor Movement Fighting for Domestic Workers’ Rights”. The New York Times (2019). 1