Are Immigrant Workers ‘Willing Subordinates?’ Examining Excessive Work by Nativity Among U.S. Farmworkers

• In Event: 30617 - Immigrant Communities and Families

Abstract

This paper builds on prior research of employers’ and workers’ perceptions of differences in work effort by nativity. Specifically, this literature suggests that immigrants in low-wage industries in the United States are more likely to labor strenuously than native-born workers. Using National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) data, this paper investigates whether this expected pattern of work effort by nativity holds among U.S. farmworkers and evaluates the mechanisms that explain nativity differences. The findings suggest that foreign-born farmworkers are not any more likely than native-born farmworkers to experience employer control. Furthermore, employer control is not significantly associated with excessive work. That is, foreign-born farmworkers are not any more likely than native-born farmworkers to respond to employer control by working more excessively. Thus, I argued that foreign-born farmworkers are not the “willing subordinates,” that employers have characterized other low-wage immigrant workers as being. Rather, employment and legal precarity are more important in explaining excessive work than employer control.

Author

• Melissa Manzanares, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill