Buying and Selling Migrants: The Erosion of Employment Standards through Legal Protections

• In Event: 200 - Section on International Migration Paper Session. New Directions in Migration Theory

Abstract

To explain the pattern of labor migration to western nations immigration research has examined supply side factors such as migrant characteristics and their familial networks, in particular, these studies focus on undocumented entry. However, my multi-site ethnography consisting of 97 interviews with U.S. guest workers, oil industry employers, and Indian labor brokers reveals an erosion of working conditions through employer use of legal contracts and lawful immigration channels. The study evaluates a multi-country recruitment chain of indentured migration and constrained U.S. employment to address the question: how are forms of migrant employment that violate the letter of the law made to be legal? Findings indicate that multi-country business networks establish self-sustaining migratory circuits that (1) involve a diffusion of legal accountability and (2) sustain a constrained migrant workforce. I term this empirical mechanism, industry-driven migration, it builds upon existing theories by shedding insight into the double bind of legal documents and immigration policy for generating a dependent workforce. This study extends our knowledge of international migration patterns by highlighting the business networks responsible for legally compromised migrant entry into western labor markets.

Author

• SaunJuhi Verma, Duke University