Migrant Worker Sociology

Improved Essays
1.) Social Location/pg. 4: The group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society. The migrant workers, whose stories were told in the film, came from impoverished backgrounds. Because of their ethnicity and their lack of social capital, it was easy for them to be taken advantage of. Whether because of prejudices or access to education, they had limited options for making an income for survival. Zulema, Victor, and Pearla’s families had limited skills for employment. This creates a generational cycle of migrant workers who raise migrant workers. This group membership will take priority over others that could lead to the ending of the cycle; school, church, and community involvement, to name a few. The constant …show more content…
Because of the poverty that so quickly attaches itself to these workers, there is an absence of necessary things like heath care or insurance. These workers are left vulnerable to whatever their environment will send their way. In Pearla’s case, she watched her brother bleed out because a hospital refused to admit someone without insurance. When they could scrounge some funds to pay for a medical treatment for her mother, it left them financially strapped. The cycle continues both physically and mentally. The idea of hope becomes distant as poverty grows more entrenched in the migrant …show more content…
Low powered shanties are the norm. Ownership of a home is not often within the reach of these impoverished people. An entire family’s belongings can fit in the back of a pick-up truck with a miniature trailer which gets moved from place to place. When in limbo between locations, block buildings in the form of government run shelters are a temporary option for rest. These objects that distinguish this culture are minimal and few. There is an atmosphere of poverty. What is termed “normal” by a large portion of the American community, is out of reach for these poor workers. The individual can pack most, if not all, of what defines their appearance in a simple

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