Problem
Immigrants are large contributors to the US economy whether documented or not. Providing appropriate policies that protect foreign workers from workplace abuses protects US citizens as well as foreign laborers. Clearly the study ”Building Austin, building justice: Immigrant construction workers, precarious labor regimes and social citizenship” highlights the impact impact poor US immigration policies and neoliberal deregulation policies has had on wages in the construction industry in Austin, Texas. This study exposes how these policies create a system that allows the abuse of immigrant labor as well as undermining the US job market by allowing predatory employers to pay less than a fair wage. Since 1990, US immigration policy has …show more content…
“Instead of deterring Mexicans from moving to the neighboring country, they have promoted a more rapid growth in the size of the undocumented population (Massey 2005) because of a simple cost-benefit calculation on the part of potential migrants—the greater the risks involved in reentry, the more they have tended to stay in the United States rather than returning home; and the longer they remain north of the border, the more likely they are to bring in their spouses and dependents to live with them.” (Fernández-Kelly & Massey 2007). Theodore, (2006) re-enforces in “Closed Borders, Open Markets” the sentiments of Massey et al. (2002 : 5) “U.S. policies transformed what had been a relatively open and benign labor process with few negative consequences into an exploitative underground system of labor coercion that put downward pressure on the wages and working conditions not only on undocumented immigrants but of legal immigrants and citizens alike.”(p. 257). Obviously these efforts are failing as we continue to build walls to stop undocumented immigrants from remaining in the US. These measures are not only expensive, but for the most part ineffective, since most undocumented immigrants enter the US legally and remain after their
Immigrants are large contributors to the US economy whether documented or not. Providing appropriate policies that protect foreign workers from workplace abuses protects US citizens as well as foreign laborers. Clearly the study ”Building Austin, building justice: Immigrant construction workers, precarious labor regimes and social citizenship” highlights the impact impact poor US immigration policies and neoliberal deregulation policies has had on wages in the construction industry in Austin, Texas. This study exposes how these policies create a system that allows the abuse of immigrant labor as well as undermining the US job market by allowing predatory employers to pay less than a fair wage. Since 1990, US immigration policy has …show more content…
“Instead of deterring Mexicans from moving to the neighboring country, they have promoted a more rapid growth in the size of the undocumented population (Massey 2005) because of a simple cost-benefit calculation on the part of potential migrants—the greater the risks involved in reentry, the more they have tended to stay in the United States rather than returning home; and the longer they remain north of the border, the more likely they are to bring in their spouses and dependents to live with them.” (Fernández-Kelly & Massey 2007). Theodore, (2006) re-enforces in “Closed Borders, Open Markets” the sentiments of Massey et al. (2002 : 5) “U.S. policies transformed what had been a relatively open and benign labor process with few negative consequences into an exploitative underground system of labor coercion that put downward pressure on the wages and working conditions not only on undocumented immigrants but of legal immigrants and citizens alike.”(p. 257). Obviously these efforts are failing as we continue to build walls to stop undocumented immigrants from remaining in the US. These measures are not only expensive, but for the most part ineffective, since most undocumented immigrants enter the US legally and remain after their