Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
minimum wage, 70 percent were not paid for work done beyond thei
Worlds of Work
}lo I knew" before taking a new job as a dishwasher in a pizzeria for
83
regular shift, and 76 percent were not paid extra for overtime work. r
Without exception, these violations occurred at higher rates for un. Wore money, about $325 per week. He was ambitious, however, and
documented migrants, among whom 38 percent earned less than the I learned, and soon I knew the English names of all the products,
legal minimum, 76 percent were not paid for extra work, and 85 percent t least all the important ones." After two months, his growing knowl-
were not paid re9uired overtime (Bernhardt et al. 2009) .. These findings enabled him to move into the kitchen, where "in two weeks I
from representative urban labor market surveys are entirely consistent learned the pizza business," and his salary was raised to $500 per week.
with the experiences reported by our own informants, who work in the 'flte experience and skills he acquired in the pizzeria kitchen enabled
New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia urban corridor. In many ways low. ]lim to keep moving up, this time into a job paying around $700 per
wage work in the United States has become an underground economy week; he located it through "a cousin who worked here, you know, and
that is increasingly detached from federal, state, and local regulations he said they needed someone." The job had no benefits, however, even
and that operates outside the rules of occupational, safety, health, labor, though he was paid by check and had taxes deducted. The owner was
and social security law. The stories offered by our immigrant respon- Ecuadoran, and his fellow workers were also Latino, including "four Ec-
dents thus provide a clear window on "how the other half works" uadorans and also some Guatemalans," suggesting that the business
(Waldinger and Lichter 2003). was an enclave enterprise.
As these vignettes suggest, a common theme throughout our inter-
views was the use of social ties to friends and relatives to gain access to
Notes from Underground
U.S. employment-or, in theoretical terms, immigrants mobilized their
To characterize the world of work faced by immigrants in our sample we interpersonal ties to extract social capital that furthered their material
compiled work histories that began with the question: "When and how interests. A documented Ecuadoran male from New Jersey reported that
did you begin working in the United States?" We paid particular atten- he quickly got his first job in a restaurant "by means of a friend." Work-
tion to respondents' first and last jobs in the United States and sought to ing as a busboy, he reported earning $600 per week for working a ten-
clarify the conditions of employment for each, including the amount hour shift from 10:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night, five to six days a
earned, the hours worked per day, the form of payment, access to bene- week. Although he received no benefits, he was paid by check, and taxes
fits, deduction of taxes, the ethnicity of the employer, and other features and other charges were deducted.
of the work setting. We then asked about the intervening jobs and the Working long hours is a characteristic feature of the jobs held by the
respondent's other experiences in the labor market. The answers to our immigrants in our sample. An undocumented Mexican man in New
queries reveal a world of work characterized by long hours, low wages, York, who was a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, earned "something
cash payment, few benefits, little job security, double shifts, and multiple around $500 per week" working a schedule that he said was not "fixed"
jobs worked back to back in order to raise earnings. but generally involved long days, "sometimes twelve or fourteen hours
Like Bernhardt and her co-authors (2009), we found that a common per day," and "sometimes I work five or six days per week." He was
work setting for immigrants was the restaurant industr_Yr especially piz- paid in cash, and though no deductions were made for benefits or taxes,
zerias owned by other immigrants. Such was the case of an undocu- he reported that his employers did provide "a little extra money" under
mented Mexican man in New Jersey who reported that "three days after certain circumstances-or as he put it, "Let's say that if I need some-
arriving I began to work with my brothers, because they worked in a thing, they give it to me."
very big restaurant." He quickly moved on, however, to take a job in the The most extreme case of long hours was reported by an undocu-
kitchen of a pizzeria, where he worked "cooking pizzas, making sand- mented Brazilian man in Philadelphia. He quickly got a job after his ar-
wiches, everything," for twelve hours a day, six days a week, earning rival in May 2000, but ever since then, he reported, he had had to work
around $11 per hour, paid in cash with no benefits or taxes deducted. He "seven days a week" without a break, a fact he confirmed to the incredu-
told us that these conditions were typical in the pizza business; in his lous interviewer:
experience, "most pizzerias pay in cash."
An undocumented Ecuadoran male, also from New Jerse_Yr reported a INTERVIEWER: When did you have a day off? Sunday?
similar trajectory: his friends and family "all worked in restaurants," RESPONDENT: No. I never had a day off.
and he got his first job "through a friend that has lived here for ten years
INTERVIEWER: No day off?
Worlds of Work 85
84 Brokered Boundaries
diS'overed that he< few houxs of work yielded little money. She ex-
RESPONDENT: No free day. I never had a day off. Before coming here I plained hoW she angled to get more hours of work:
had two days off. Always Saturdays. '
R£SPONDENT: Well, I didn't like what they were paying me there. At
INTERVIEWER: But now nothing? first it seemed like something to me, but I didn't know. I thought I
RESPONDENT: Nothing. Not now. earned well, but no one said, "Oh, look for something better." You
know? Little by little I realized that the value, the value of money
Given the low hourly wage associated with most jobs, extending the and everything. I was a cashier, selling cookies, bread, and every-
number of hours worked is often the only way in which immigrants can thing. After school I went there and started around four and left at
earn sufficient money to pay their bills and save a little money to send seven. The bakery closed at seven, and I went home. But some-
home; long hours of work are thus actively desired and sought by many times I stayed a few hours extra to see how they made the bread in
immigrants. One undocumented Mexican woman who first worked in the back and what gets delivered to bakeries at night. But I punched
the mushroom plants outside of Philadelphia looked for other work roy time card at seven and stayed late just to learn. Then one day
when she discovered that she was spending more hours commuting to the manager carne and said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Noth-
the plants than working there. She went to work for a cleaning service, ing. I'm just looking to see how they work, nothing more." And he
"but there I didn't get many hours, and so I couldn't eat. I arrived, put asked if I had punched out, and I said, "Yes, it's my free time." And
down my things, bathed, changed, and went out again, but it wasn't he said, "Okay." The thing is, he did not want me being there be-
enough to get by. I couldn't eat, and my aunt and uncle told me that, for cause I could have an accident when I wasn't working. He told me
very little money, something bad was going to happen." So she went to this and then asked whether I wanted more hours, and I said,
work for her aunt and uncle, who owned a small shop and paid her "Yes," and he said, "Okay, let's see." And next week he said that if
$6.25 an hour for a minimum eight-hour shift with no benefits or taxes I wanted I could help the bakers and watch the bread and their
deducted. boxes. Then I left around nine.
At this job, she made up for the low pay by adding extra days to her INTERVIEWER: And did you have a job other than this?
workweek, but this schedule worried her aunt and uncle, who finally
prevailed on her to take at least one day off every two weeks: RESPONDENT: Yes, because there I only worked nights on two days
that were very busy, Friday and Saturday.
RESPONDENT: And sometimes I work the whole week. To help me they Thus, even though she was able to get more hours at the bakery, her
give me one day off every fifteen days. They tell me, the senora and earnings still fell short of what she wished and she felt compelled to get
the senor, they say, "We are going to give you a day off every a second job, another common strategy for boosting total earnings
week-or do you want to work the whole week?" I tell them, "No, among those working in the secondary labor market. For example, a
all week." So they said, "But we don't want you to get tired, or get documented Honduran male in Philadelphia worked as a waiter in a
angry and decide to leave." And I said, "No, it's fine like this." And local restaurant but also freelanced as an electrician on the side, doing
they said, "We are going to do something, we are going to give you
a day off every week." So I said, "Oh, all right." odd jobs with a partner:
RESPONDENT: I worked there [as a waiter) for two years, and unfortu-
INTERVIEWER: So you take one day off per week or maybe one every
fifteen days? nately then I moved. I got another job and began to work at it.
INTERVIEWER: And they pay by check or cash? RESPONDENT: I am here, working as a waiter.
RESPONDENT: Cash. INTERVIEWER: Still a waiter?
RESPONDENT: As a waiter. I also work as an electrical technician on the
Another undocumented Mexican woman from New Jersey likewise side, but Monday through Friday, during the week, I work here.
went to work as a teenager in a local bakery for $6.00 an hour, but quickly
86 Brokered Boundaries
Worlds of Work 87
INTERVIEWER: Do you work independently or with a company?
INTERVIEWER: Okay, for two weeks then.
RESPONDENT: It's just me and another person.
RESPONDENT: Well, it varies a lot. Let's say something around $1,100
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
or $1,200.
RESPONDENT: It's like the two of us are a company. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and about how many hours do you work per
INTERVIEWER: Okay. So, like, you have a salary? day?
RESPONDENT: I pay myself. RESPONDENT: Well, that varies as well. Sometimes I come in at six and
stay until two in the afternoon, but sometimes until five or six, and
INTERVIEWER: How's it going?
then I work again from seven in the evening until three in the
RESPONDENT: It goes well. morning.
INTERVIEWER: Do you make enough to save and all that? INTERVIEWER: And do they pay you in cash or by check?
RESPONDENT: Yes. RESPONDENT: At night in cash, and here during the day by check.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. This, and you work five days a week in the other? INTERVIEWER: With the check, do they deduct taxes?
RESPONDENT: Five days a week, Monday through Friday. And some- RESPONDENT: Always.
times Saturday.
INTERVIEWER: And do you have benefits?
INTERVIEWER: And in all this, as well as working for yourself, do you RESPONDENT: No.
have to deduct taxes and all that?
RESPONDENT: Of course. A Puerto Rican male in New York reported that he went to work as a
hairstylist when a Uruguayan acquaintance opened a salon. There he
INTERVIEWER: And do you have benefits? Do you give yourself bene- took advantage of his access to a constant stream of clients to earn extra
fits?
money by distributing fliers promoting nearby clubs and bars. In his
RESPONDENT: No. own words, he
Another undocumented migrant, a Guatemalan male in New Jersey, met this Uruguayan guy who said ... "I want to open my own hair salon,
was able to bolster his earnings by working in a sandwich shop by day and if you go to school, I'll give you a job." Well, so it was. This Uru-
and as a security guard at a discotheque at night: guayan started a salon, and we spent eight years working together in Eliz-
abeth. I spent time working, and then I did promotions in the clubs and
RESPONDENT: Well, I work here at a fancy sandwich shop, and in the did well because, here there was more work, understand me, for a pro-
evenings I work in Trenton at a discotheque. moter here distributing fliers, handing out fliers to promote clubs in the
salon while washing hair, cleaning to the end of the day.
INTERVIEWER: Ah, SO you have two jobs?
RESPONDENT: Yes. Although the three immigrants just discussed earned more money
through multiple jobs, they were still unable to gain access to benefits.
INTERVIEWER: Are you a OJ?
Another respondent, an undocumented Guatemalan man in New Jersey,
RESPONDENT: No, I am an assistant in security. solved this problem by combining one job with few hours that offered
benefits with another that offered longer hours but no benefits.
INTERVIEWER: Ah, okay. And now, what is your salary, more or less?
Let's say, by the week. How much do you earn per week? INTERVIEWER: How much are they paying you here [in this latest job]?
RESPONDENT: Look, I don't get paid weekly, but every two weeks. RESPONDENT: Here they are paying me more or less $8 per hour. But I
only work three days a week.
Worlds of Work 89
88 Brokered Boundaries
INTERVIEWER: And where are you working now? Still with the Span- RESPONDENT: Around four and a half years ago.
ish guy? INTERVIEWER: And it goes well?
RESPONDENT: No, now I work for another place on route 206 up north. RESPONDENT: Yes, thank God, it's going really well.
Here I also work as a busboy, but whereas there I earn cash, here I
am paid by check. INTERVIEWER: So this business is yours? Your own? Do you share it?
Do you have co-owners?
INTERVIEWER: And you have benefits here?
RESPONDENT: Just me and my husband.
RESPONDENT: Yes, they have benefits, and they help you with commu-
nication, human relations, health. INTERVIEWER: And what about the expenses? Do you work in cash?
Do you reinvest? How does it work?
INTERVIEWER: Very well. How much are you taking home, or how
much do you earn when you take on additional work-this work RESPONDENT: Well, I have my salary and my pay by check.
that offers benefits, security, and everything, how much do you INTERVIEWER: How much do you earn, more or less?
make a month, approximately?
RESPONDENT: Around $400 per week.
RESPONDENT: Well, for the three days that I work per week, every two
weeks I make around $285 or $290. INTERVIEWER: And you have insurance and everything?
INTERVIEWER: Okay, so you earn like $600 a month, but really more RESPONDENT: Yes, we have medical insurance, but not from this work.
than this because you get benefits.
Another woman, a Honduran female living in New Jersey, after being
RESPONDENT: Yes, they take money out for those, and also they deduct
laid off from a job in a perfume factory, set up her own small shop selling
taxes. They call them taxes for the privilege of working in this
specialized ethnic products to other Latinos. Despite the long hours and
country, right? Because for us immigrants, we'll never see the ben-
modest earnings, she seemed content with the independence she en-
efit from those taxes.
joyed as a business owner:
INTERVIEWER: No, you won't, unfortunately.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. And now what do you work in?
In addition to working more hours per job or stringing together mul-
tiple jobs, another strategy to increase earnings is to form a small busi- RESPONDENT: In my own business.
ness. A documented woman from Venezuela was able to take advantage INTERVIEWER: In this shop?
of her experience working in first a Brazilian restaurant and then a Mo-
roccan restaurant to partner with her husband to open their own restau- RESPONDENT: This shop, yes.
rant, which earned them enough to purchase private health insurance: INTERVIEWER: And how much do you make, more or less?
INTERVIEWER: You said that where you began to work was in a Brazil- RESPONDENT: At least $200, sometimes $300.
ian restaurant, at the bar. And after this, you did what? Do you re- INTERVIEWER: Per day?
member?
RESPONDENT: No, per week.
RESPONDENT: After that, I jumped to another place as a waitress, that
was a Moroccan place. I worked two years in this place, which no INTERVIEWER: Oh, per week. And how many hours per day do you
longer exists, for two years, and from there I went to another place, work?
also as a waitress, and there I remained a year. From time to time I RESPONDENT: Twelve.
have also worked a lot as a babysitter.
INTERVIEWER: And seven days a week? And you are the owner?
INTERVIEWER: And when did you establish this business, your restau-
rant here? RESPONDENT: Yes.
90 Brokered Boundaries
Worlds of Work 91
INTERVIEWER: Do you pay yourself by check? How do you do it?
INTERVIEWER: How many days per week do you work?
RESPONDENT: No, in cash, calculated.
RESPoNDENT: It varies, but around five.
A documented Colombian male reported a thriving business as a mu- INTERVIEWER: Five days. How many hours per day?
sician around New York: he played a regular stint three to five days a RESPONDENT: Around four.
week at a restaurant on Long Island and also did his own concerts as
well as weddings and parties. He made good money doing work that INTERVIEWER: Four hours, and also, you said you studied?
still left him time to pursue his studies:
RESPONDENT: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: So you are active how many hours per day?
RESPONDENT: I've always worked for myself, playing weddings, con-
certs. RESPONDENT: From around nine in the morning until eleven or twelve
at night.
INTERVIEWER: So you would [classify] yourself as an independent
contractor? Is that what we should say?
Another man, a Venezuelan interviewed in New Jersey, likewise re-
RESPONDENT: Yes. ported that he increased his earnings by performing as a musician after
moving between several disagreeable jobs. He began as a painter but
INTERVIEWER: Then that's what we'll say. Do you have a company?
ended up cutting his hands badly because the owner refused to let him
RESPONDENT: No, not yet. trim back the roses around the house. He then worked at a deli, but
INTERVIEWER: You sell by word of mouth? when he discovered he was being paid less than others doing the same
work, he walked away and took a job in a Korean laundry, where he be-
RESPONDENT: Yes. came an expert at ironing shirts. Although he earned the admiration of
the laundry owner and made good money, the pace was relentless, and
INTERVIEWER: From this guy or that ... and your price is normally ...
eventually he came to see it as "typical exploitation of the Latino." He
RESPONDENT: Well, this time it was $70 for three hours. grew tired of the work and moved to Miami to stay with friends for a
INTERVIEWER: Aha, but normally how much do you charge? while. There he became involved in the local Latin community.
RESPONDENT: Oh, it depends where and when and how. RESPONDENT: Then I got tired, and I went to check out Miami, where I
had some musician friends who said, why don't you come down
INTERVIEWER: Okay. So let's try it a different way. Can you give me
your approximate earnings these days? here. So I got my money together, and I rented an apartment in
North Miami and went to live [there] for a year.
RESPONDENT: It Varies.
INTERVIEWER: And what did you do while down there?
INTERVIEWER: Yes, I understand, but monthly, for example, or weeklfr
RESPoNDENT: Just music, and peaceful living, pure music. At first I
we need a figure. Because you are independent, it is difficult.
didn't make much money, but I got by.
RESPONDENT: Well, for a week it can reach $1,000.
INTERVIEWER: Playing what?
INTERVIEWER: One thousand, okarr so we can say that you earn be-
tween $4,000 and $6,000 per month, or is that too much? RESPONDENT: Music. This was a group in those days, the best gaita
band in Miami. Gaita is a kind of music in Venezuela. And with
RESPONDENT: Too much. I would say around $4,000. this group I began to play. Then I went off by myself and made up
INTERVIEWER: Okay, $4,000, that's good money. And do you have in- some cards and began to leave them around restaurants, and
surance? within a month I was playing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and
Sunday.
RESPONDENT: No.
INTERVIEWER: Imagine that!
Worlds of Work 93
92 Brokered Boundaries
RESPONDENT: Something over $40,000-$46,000,$47,000.
RESPONDENT: And when I began to be a musician, if I charged $300, I
would give $100 to the percussionist and keep $200 for myself, be- INTERVIEWER: That's good. And you feel comfortable with this?
cause I was the one who got the contract and it was my business,
understand? So I would get $200 for three hours ... RESPONDENT: Yes, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Imagine the difference! A few respondents, generally those with valid documents, a corn-
tnand of English, and some education, reported working in the primary
RESPONDENT: Just sitting in a chair ... labor market. One Dominican female in New York first began to work at
INTERVIEWER: ... and doing what you like. summer jobs when she was a university student, but her documented
status enabled her eventually to land a job in a city agency under a spe-
RESPONDENT: And from this carne other contracts, because there were
cial program for minority workers, which allowed her to build her re-
always private parties, and in these I would charge $800, at times sume as she completed her studies and launch her career in accounting:
$1,000, because these were people with a lot of money. I would
bring with me to these parties a bass player and another guitarist RESPONDENT: After that, when I had, like, two years of university, I
so that we were four, and then I began to make upwards of $1,200 had to begin to work to gain experience that was good to get an-
to $1,500 cash per week. other job. Ah, I worked a month in an agency of New York City.
There was a program for low-wage people to obtain work through
A woman from Ecuador with questionable documents reported that the city, and I got a job in an office of a city agency.
she managed to earn something approaching a middle-class income by
managing a restaurant owned by her brother in Philadelphia. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and after you got this job?
RESPONDENT: Summer jobs that were mainly to get work experience
RESPONDENT: I became a waitress. As soon as I began to work with my in my specialty-! was studying accounting-different jobs, work-
brother, because he put a little responsibility on me, right away I ing in different places to get experience in accounting so when I
stayed to close the restaurant and then to open it-me, all by my- graduated I could put experience on my resume.
self. I have always wanted to be a business person, so I began to INTERVIEWER: And now do you think that you are working at your
interact with the people that he had, in terms of the business, and
to take charge of the requests and these things. So it was that he level?
gave me this confidence, and I began to work with him more di- RESPONDENT: Well, really a lot of time passed before that. When I
rectly. graduated, I worked for the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey in the World Trade Center, and it was there that I met my
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Has he made you a partner, or are you still just husband. This was my first job, and afterward I got my accounting
his sister? license, my CPA, and I went to work for Ernst and Young, one of
RESPONDENT: He is the only owner. the largest accounting firms in the United States and even the
world. I worked there nine years, and then I worked at a hospital,
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Do you have any idea, more or less, how much
and then two and a half years ago I came here.
you earn now, how much you are earning right now, when you
figure it out for the year, or if you will, for the month, or however INTERVIEWER: What is your current title here?
you want to give it. Approximately. RESPONDENT: Assistant accountant in the Metropolitan Museum of
RESPONDENT: Well, I am on salary, at $9 per hour. It's a payment that I Art.
agreed upon with my brother. But apart from that we do, urn, par- INTERVIEWER: I imagine that you have benefits and all this sort of
ties. We do private events in which I get a percentage of the tip that
comes to, more or less, at a minimum, around forty thousand per thing.
year. Or at least it fluctuates around forty. RESPONDENT: Yes, everything. From the start I have always had bene-
INTERVIEWER: So what would be the total income per year? fits.
94 Brokered Boundaries
Worlds of Work 95
Another documented Dominican woman in New York also reported
being able to take advantage of public programs directed at the disad- ment does is check that the claims that arrive are appropriately
vantaged to gain valuable work experience and move ahead in work paid.
and school:
INTERVIEWER: And how much do you earn?
RESPONDENT: I began to work in summer jobs when I was around RESPONDENT: Around seventy (thousand per year).
fourteen years old. INTERVIEWER: And how many hours per day?
INTERVIEWER: Summer Jobs for Youth? RESPONDENT: Thousands! I mean, I like to work seven and a half
RESPONDENT: Summer Jobs for Youth. I mean, they're government hours, but sometimes I stay more, like eight or nine hours, depend-
ing on the work that I have.
jobs that every summer give work to kids, students aged fourteen
to eighteen. You have to apply every summer, and you can work INTERVIEWER: And they pay by check?
up to three months, and you get the minimum wage. They are of-
RESPONDENT: Yes, a salary-not by the hour.
fice jobs. You learn how to use computers, telephones, things like
that. They're still good jobs. I don't think they have these programs INTERVIEWER: With benefits and all?
now. I mean, I have not run into [anyone] who said they still have
RESPONDENT: Yes, everything.
these programs. But this girl I met the other day, I told her about
this program. Usually they are community service jobs? Similarly, a documented Dominican female in New York began work
INTERVIEWER: With nonprofits? when she was recommended for a position by a professor at college,
RESPONDENT: Ummm, yes. which was followed by other part-time positions on campus as she com-
pleted her studies, including a stint in Europe teaching English to French
INTERVIEWER: And after this work, what was your first job? students and culminating with an internship that she expected to launch
her formal career in the United States:
RESPONDENT: When I finished high school at age sixteen.
INTERVIEWER: Oh? In what kind of things? RESPONDENT: Now I have an internship with a private organization
for children in Harlem. Harlem is a community ... well, I guess
RESPONDENT: It was something medical, you know, something with you know it. Well, I work there in a program in which the children
the health department or something like that. I began working have classes in the morning and in the afternoon they play base-
there.
ball.
INTERVIEWER: And how much did you earn more or less? Can you tell INTERVIEWER: How much do they pay you?
me your salary?
RESPONDENT: They pay me $100 per week.
RESPONDENT: I don't remember, but not very much, something like $5
per hour. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and you have benefits?
INTERVIEWER: And was it full-time or part-time? RESPONDENT: I don't have benefits. What kind of benefits are you talk-
ing about?
RESPONDENT: It was part-time because I was near the university. I
worked two or three days per week, less than twenty-one hours INTERVIEWER: Like social security . . .
per week.
RESPONDENT: No, nothing like that. It is an internship for college stu-
INTERVIEWER: And now what kind of work do you do? dents, and more than anything it is for the experience because I
want to get a job.
RESPONDENT: I am a client manager. I manage, like, four people who
audit medical claims from hospitals and doctors. What my depart- INTERVIEWER: Do you work to help out your parents, or do you work
to pay for school? Both things?
Worlds of Work 97
96 Brokered Boundaries
RESPONDENT: Bad, because the line came with one chicken after an-
RESPONDENT: Mainly I work to help [with] my studies, but I would other, some ten chickens per minute. The line ran very rapidly, and
say this is also helping my parents because they are paying for my the Chinese woman was behind you checking to make sure you
schooling. I usually like to take care of everything myself so I don't had done a good job on the chicken, and if you had left a bone. She
have to ask my parents for personal expenses, or even school ex- fucking cussed us out all the time, and it was very hard.
penses. If I need to, I ask.
INTERVIEWER:Was it dangerous? In terms of risks, what did you do?
For those without documents and education, mobility prospects are Did you grab the chicken? How did you decide?
bleak. During the 1990s, the terms of immigrant hiring shifted in re- RESPONDENT: The chicken comes down the line cooked and really hot.
sponse to changes instituted by the Immigration Reform and Control
Act, which for the first time criminalized undocumented hiring by sanc- INTERVIEWER: Aha.
tioning employers who "knowingly" hired unauthorized migrants. In RESPONDENT: And we had to cut it to bits, remove the leg, the thigh,
response, immigrants began purchasing false documents, and employ- the breast. [We had] to remove both because this went into ham-
ers shifted from direct hiring to subcontracting through middlemen.
Rather than hiring an immigrant directly, employers entered into a con- burgers for McDonald's.
tract with a citizen or resident alien who agreed to make workers avail- INTERVIEWER: Really?
able to the employer on terms acceptable to both. If the job site was
RESPONDENT: Yes. And to take it apart and all ...
raided and undocumented immigrants were apprehended, then the sub-
contractor was liable to be sanctioned, not the employer. In our inter- INTERVIEWER: ... Hot, and your hands ...
views, we often found that the subcontractor was a middleman minority
RESPONDENT: ... Yes, you burned your hands there.
group member with legal status who served as the interface between the
formal business of the employer and the underground labor market. INTERVIEWER: They didn't give you gloves or anything?
The net effect of these arrangements was to reduce the wages and RESPONDENT: They don't give out gloves because they gave us some
undermine the working conditions of immigrants, who were at the liquids to sterilize our hands, to wash our hands well. They don't
mercy of subcontractors and left unprotected by the laws that governed give out gloves because with gloves you can't feel the bone. You
the workplace behavior of the firm where they actually worked. Such have to be without gloves to feel the bone, to feel where the bone
was the situation of an undocumented Mexican woman in Philadelphia goes in the meat. But, yes, there are risks, because everything is so
who told us: fast and you have to use a knife, and with the knife you can cut
yourself, up to the point where ...
I began to work the day after I arrived in the United States, in a green-
house, and then later we found ourselves working for a Chinese woman INTERVIEWER: Doesn't it hurt you also in this part of the hands?
in Maryland. She came and picked us up at three in the morning to take us RESPONDENT: Yes, that, it is really nasty, and here, like this, the chicken
to Maryland to work in a chicken processing plant. Yes, they picked us up carries a kind of liquid, so that it isn't the chicken that hurts you,
at three in the morning, and we arrived at around six, and we left again at
really, so much as the liquid, with which ...
around four and came back next day again at six. And I worked there for
around four months, until they began to ask for my papers. INTERVIEWER:What?
RESPONDENT: I don't know what damages your hands, if it is the liq-
The wages she earned were low, and the conditions of work were uid with which you wash your hands or the chickens, because you
harsh, with the Chinese subcontractor imposing strict, uncompromising end up with cracks and cuts and everything with the heat.
discipline:
INTERVIEWER: Maybe the chicken comes to you with some material,
INTERVIEWER: How much did they pay you at the chicken plant? some liquid or something.
RESPONDENT: Around $5.50 [per hour]. RESPONDENT: And this, the chicken comes hot, and you have to be
doing everything rapidly, everything rapid. And after a while you
INTERVIEWER: And how were the conditions of work there?
Worlds of Work 99
98 Brokered Boundaries
INTERVIEWER: And this job in Philadelphia was like that? You call it
just zone out without being able to be rapid, and chickens back up,
and the Chinese woman really curses you for letting them back up outside work?
too much . . .. That was the Chinese woman. She gave us a cap to RESPONDENT: Outside work, yes.
hide our hair and earplugs because the machinery made so much
INTERVIEWER: Outside of New York, but you got it from here?
noise. And when even the littlest hair fell out of the cap, or the ear-
plugs, she would arrive and, with her hands all full of chicken ... RESPONDENT: From here, yes.
push and pull until she put the hair back and hid the earplugs. She
was very mean, very bad. We were working there for around four INTERVIEWER: Very good.
months, and then we left. RESPONDENT: It's that the employers are outside of New York, and
they call the agency by phone asking for personnel. And from here,
INTERVIEWER: Did you have benefits or anything like that? on a blank sheet, you put, restaurant work, two people, one for
RESPONDENT: No. Boston, the other for Philadelphia.
INTERVIEWER: And how did they pay you? In cash? INTERVIEWER: And they give you a place to stay?
RESPONDENT: Cash. RESPONDENT: Yes. And they give you allowances for this and that.
INTERVIEWER: And they didn't take out anything for taxes? Or maybe INTERVIEWER: And take you in a car and everything?
since it was in cash you don't know. RESPONDENT : They buy you a bus ticket from here to wherever you
RESPONDENT: No, I don't know if they deducted anything. are going.
INTERVIEWER: You don't know. INTERVIEWER: And then they come to get you?
RESPONDENT: But she said that, yes, she took out social security. RESPONDENT: Arriving at the bus station, you speak by telephone to
the restaurant, and someone from there comes to find you.
INTERVIEWER: And did she give you a receipt that said this?
INTERVIEWER: And what kind of housing did they give you? Was it
RESPONDENT: No.
good or not?
A Mexican male in New York also reported working for a Chinese RESPONDENT: It was fine . Well, in this house [where] my cousin still
subcontractor, in this case someone who provided workers to restau- lives as he continues to work there. I say "cousin" because it was
rants on short-term contracts up and down the East Coast under a spe- him I lived with there.
cial arrangement known as "outside work"-meaning work outside of
New York that paid the going wage but came with housing while the Despite not having to pay for housing for this outside work, the earn-
workers were temporarily dispatched out of town. ings prospects were meager, with a base salary of $160 every two weeks
and the rest made in tips, all without benefits or taxes and all paid in
RESPONDENT: Like I will say, what we called outside work, well, out- cash:
side work pays more or less the same and also offers a place to stay RESPONDENT: Well, how should I put it? It's that my base salary is
without paying rent. You only have to pay for personal expenses.
$160 every two weeks.
INTERVIEWER: What do you call it? Outside work?
INTERVIEWER: And the rest you make in . . .
RESPONDENT: Outside work. Outside New York City. It's to say that, if
I want a job in New Jersey or wherever, I go to the agency and I say, RESPONDENT: In tips.
"I want work in this particular place," and, well, they say, "No, I INTERVIEWER: And these are good?
don't have anything. I have something in this other location." Or
you have to wait until something comes up. RESPONDENT: Sometimes.
100 Brokered Boundaries
Worlds of Work 101
INTERVIEWER: Sometimes, but not always? So if you had to roughly
estimate per week, would you put it at around $300? RESPONDENT: Ten.
RESPONDENT: More like $400, $450 more or less. INTERVIEWER: Did you get paid in cash?
INTERVIEWER: Do you have benefits RESPONDENT: Uh huh.
health insurance, and so on? there? At least life insurance,
INTERVIEWER: Did they take out taxes?
RESPONDENT: No, nothing like that.
RESPONDENT: I have no idea.
INTERVIEWER: Do they deduct taxes?
INTERVIEWER: And you didn't have benefits?
RESPONDENT: Yes, they take out taxes.
RESPONDENT: Nope.
INTERVIEWER: And when they pay you, do they pay in cash or with a
check or what? Although harsh working conditions are associated with labor subcon-
RESPONDENT: In cash. tracting, a difficult work environment is not limited to this kind of indi-
rect hiring. An undocumented Mexican woman living in New Jersey
INTERVIEWER: And they give you a little sheet of paper that tells you complained about the conditions she endured in a frozen cake factory
the hours you worked and all that, don't they? where she not only worked in below-freezing temperatures but had to
RESPONDENT: No. keep up with a rapid assembly line as she decorated cakes:
Latino immigrants dominate the workforce of the region's lawn and RESPONDENT: From there I entered an ice cream factory, a place for
garden sector. One documented Mexican male reported that his first job frozen desserts. The work was real hard because it is extremely
in the United States was working for a Chinese foreman in "la yarda"- cold and you have to go into the freezer to get out what you need
doing yard work in the wealthy suburbs outside of Philadelphia-once to decorate the cakes. It's like you're stuck for eight hours, and it's
again always the same. You have to meet a certain production to con-
in cash:for low wages, with no benefits, no taxes deducted, and payment tinue in your job.
INTERVIEWER: What is this production? That they ask you to wash at
RESPONDENT: A man, a Chinese guy, he came to pick us up, and we least thirty baking sheets per minute?
went there.
RESPONDENT: Yes, like that. Baking sheets per hour and cakes when
INTERVIEWER: What were you growing? What did you cultivate? we made them there we froze them. The cakes were 350 per hour
RESPONDENT: No, we were cleaning, clearing leaves that had fallen on [had to finish 350 per hour]. Depending on the size of the cakes,
the grass. sometimes for the smallest ones it was 700 per hour.
INTERVIEWER: Aha. And where was this? In Philadelphia? INTERVIEWER: What did you do?
RESPONDENT: Outside of Philadelphia. They brought me there in a car. RESPONDENT: You are decorating them, putting HAPPY BIRTHDAY on
them, putting on the balloons and all the little figures.
INTERVIEWER: How much did they pay you for this?
INTERVIEWER: Okay, and how much did they pay you there in the des-
RESPONDENT: They paid me two hundred.
sert factory?
INTERVIEWER: Weekly?
RESPONDENT: They paid me $7 [per hour].
RESPONDENT: A little more maybe.
INTERVIEWER: That was a little better than your first job?
INTERVIEWER: How many hours did you work per day?
RESPONDENT: A little better.
102 Brokered Boundaries
Worlds of Work 103
INTERVIEWER: And did they provide benefits?
be able to get better jobs in the primary labor sector are those with docu-
RESPONDENT: Oh, no. There we had no benefits. ments and education, a requirement that excludes the large majority of
recent Latino iminigrants and many in the second generation as well. In
Not all respondents gave us unremitting tales of hardship and exploi- this section, we draw on a quantitative coding of our qualitative inter-
tation. One young Mexican man in Philadelphia had very nice things to view data to clarify and measure precisely what being mired in the sec-
say about the owner of the upscale Asian fusion restaurant where he ondary labor market means in terms of status and wages.
worked:
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occupational hierarchy, mostly into unskilled services. Among those
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in tables 4.1 and 4.3, however, are unconditioned by a variety of other
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mobility between the first and last U.S. jobs (with the reference category
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squared of around 0.42, meaning that the variables account for around
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