Suburban Maintenance Gardening as a Route to Upward Mobility Among Mexican Immigrant Men

• In Event: 566 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Labor Markets and Work

Abstract

Some scholars suggest that low human capital and limited English skills relegate Mexican immigrants to low-wage occupations with limited opportunities for advancement, and that Mexican immigrants in the U.S. represent a wage-labor pool destined for blue collar and service jobs, not for business ownership. But the case of jardineros - or suburban maintenance gardeners - in Los Angeles challenges this stream of thought in at least two ways: (1) It represents a case where manual labor and business ownership go hand in hand, rather than being mutually exclusive alternatives; and, (2) It is an occupational niche that has allowed some Mexican immigrant men who came to the U.S. with low human capital to generate relatively high incomes. This paper asks: How does self-employment in suburban maintenance gardening lead to socioeconomic mobility? That is, what are the nuts-and-bolts mechanisms of mobility among this group of entrepreneurial Mexican immigrant men? The answer to this question rests upon several key factors, which include: (1) self-exploitation; (2) the exploitation of co-ethnic employees, colloquially referred to as ayudantes or helpers; (3) the exploitation of family labor; (4) the routine practice of taking on “extra” jobs, such as seasonal plantings, tree trimming jobs, and yard cleanups, which are an important source of supplementary income for gardening route owners; and (5) the reselling of plants and other garden materials to clients at marked-up prices.

Author

• Hernan Ramirez, Florida State University