Housing (In)security as a Risk and Response to Child Migrant Labor in the United States

• In Event: 40429 - Immigration and Child Labor

Abstract

There has been an alarming rise in child labor exploitation, injury, and death in the US over the
last decade. Since fiscal year 2015, the number of children employed in violation of child labor
laws has risen by 283 percent. In fiscal year 2023 alone, 955 cases of child labor violations were
reported across the US, affecting the lives of an estimated 5,792 unlawfully employed children.
Among the children at risk of labor exploitation are child migrants, including unaccompanied
children. From the perspective of service providers working with unaccompanied children and
their sponsors in California, this study considers the most salient needs prompting children to
enter exploitative jobs across the state. Findings reveal that housing instability, described as
households’ limited access to affordable housing and children’s feelings of insecurity within a
home despite housing availability, prompts children to work to stabilize their lives. Bridging
migration research with stratification and critical childhood studies, this study argues that
immigrants’ housing insecurity, born out of precarious legal and economic statuses and histories
of racial segregation, activates children’s agency and early entry into exploitative low-wage
labor occupations. Thus, housing presents both a risk and a response to the child migrant labor
crisis in the United States.

Author

• Stephanie L. Canizales, University of California-Berkeley