Constructing the Professional Self: Colombian and Puerto Rican Engineers in the Global Workplace.

• In Event: 190 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Media Constructions of Latina/as and Discrimination

Abstract

The paper examines how Colombian and Puerto Rican computer engineers perform their professional identities as part of their incorporation to so-called global workplaces located in the United States. Based on 62 in-depth interviews with Colombian and Puerto Rican computer engineers that migrated to the US during the ‘dot com boom’ (late 1990s), I explore the impact social discourses about assimilation, multiculturalism and race have on the construction of the professional identities of these migrants. In this paper, I discuss the dynamics of ethno-racial stereotyping and marginalization in global workplaces. I also reveal strategies respondents used to navigate these dynamics: framed as part of ideals of multiculturalism and global citizenship, Colombian and Puerto Rican engineers endorsed and/or challenged extant racial hierarchies in the global workplace.

Author

• Lina Rincón