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... Day labourers are employed in informal labour markets and get paid by day or project. In the United States, day labourers generally try to sell their labour in public spaces, such as street corners, parking lots or vacant lots (Valenzuela & Melendez, 2003). Although the presence of immigrant day labourers in the United States can be traced back centuries, tensions started to emerge in the late 1980s. ...
This paper examines the various factors that influence how local elected officials (mayors and council persons) in the United States develop policy responses to immigrant day labourers in their jurisdictions. We argue that in addition to demographic and political factors, the design of municipal political institutions shapes their responses. Inclusive day labourer policies are more likely to occur in mayor–council systems than in council–manager systems. In addition, we argue that it is important to consider how the interaction of factors affects local policy responses. Several factors have been identified as impacting local immigration policies, but in order to understand the widespread variation in local policy responses, it is necessary to examine how these factors interact in particular localities over extended periods of time. Interaction leads to dynamic policies that change over time. Local policy responses are examined quantitatively – using a dataset based on day labourer hiring sites in California and fitting multilevel generalized linear models – and qualitatively – using transcribed city council meetings.
... Day-labor research has been largely a-spatial from its inception and the trend continues in most contemporary work on the subject. Research by Valenzuela and Melendez (2003) established a typology of hiring sites that remains dominant within day-labor studies today. The typology classifies hiring sites as "connected," "disconnected," or "regulated." ...
... In the concluding section of this paper, I present recommendations for implementing the typology of hiring sites in day-labor policy and outreach that are informed by my work with community groups in the region. Sites were selected for participant observation because they exhibited at least one of four particular sets of situational and relational characteristics that are common among SDMA hiring sites, three of which are distinct from the criteria used to classify sites by S.M. Crotty Valenzuela and Melendez (2003). The type of site selected for in-depth qualitative study were informal hiring sites that are connected to big-box home improvement stores and also located near stops on the light rail system in San Diego, colloquially known as the trolley. ...
Day-labor hiring sites are common features of the contemporary North American landscape. These are public and semi-public spaces where mostly male residents congregate daily in hopes of being hired for short-term work. Research on contemporary day-labor markets in the United States to date tends to be policy-oriented, intended to reduce the injustices that are a common part of life as a day laborer. Unfortunately, very little is understood about the spatial organization of day-labor markets. Drawing on more than five years of mixed-methods research in the San Diego Metropolitan Area (SDMA), this paper takes two important steps toward a spatial understanding of day-labor hiring sites. First, it demonstrates that informal hiring sites are established in locations that maximize laborers chances of finding employment. Second, it establishes a geo-spatial typology of hiring sites for the SDMA that can be used to better tailor day-labor support efforts and policy to site-level context.
... In addition, the working conditions under which day laborers operate are often physically hazardous (Duke et al., 2010). Further, the majority of day laborers experience abuse by their employers, intimidation by authorities, and harassment by the communities in which they seek employment (Cleaveland, 2010;Valenzuela & Melendez, 2003). However, this population tends not to report any of these experiences for fear of encountering further consequences due to their unauthorized work status (Cleaveland, 2010). ...
Little is known about alcohol misuse and depression among Latino day laborers despite the fact that they encounter multiple stressors (e.g., job instability, unsafe work environments). A structural equation model tested the relationships among laborer stress, social support, health status, current alcohol misuse, and depression. A sample of 89 male, urban Latino day laborers completed measures assessing these constructs in 2011. Stress was negatively related to physical health status, which was associated with depression. Findings suggest that stressors specific to being a day laborer resulting from their work and living conditions generate and maintain health disparities in this vulnerable population.
... Implications: Insights from this study indicate that day laborers benefit from services provided by stable day labor centers. KEYWORDS undocumented immigrants, Mexican immigrants, discrimination, injustice, job hunting, language barriers, housing needs INTRODUCTION A considerable amount of research exists that addresses the nature of the day labor market, the characteristics of individuals who participate in it, the conditions generally faced by day laborers, and the broad economic and social consequences of day labor work (Kerr & Dole, 2005;Purser, 2007;Roberts & Bartley, 2004;Strayhorn, 2006;Theodore, 2003;Valenzuela, 2001Valenzuela, , 2003Valenzuela & Melendez, 2003;Valenzuela, Theodore, Melendez, & Gonzalez, 2006;Walter, Bourgois, Loinaz, & Schillinger, 2002). Much of the existing research highlights the legal and policy issues and implications associated with the day labor market and the fact that a significant majority of day laborers are men who have immigrated to the United States without following legal immigration channels (Passel, 2006). ...
... The issue identified in this study of the abuse and discrimination faced by day laborers is not a new finding (Kerr & Dole, 2005;Purser, 2007;Roberts & Bartley, 2004;Theodore, 2003;Valenzuela, 2001Valenzuela, , 2003Valenzuela & Melendez, 2003;Valenzuela et al., 2006;Walter et al., 2002). However, the insight obtained from these interviews that the discrimination came from members of the workers' own ethnic and cultural background has not been discussed extensively in the literature. ...
The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to identify key issues in the daily lives of day laborers and to ascertain the perceptions laborers had of day labor centers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 day laborers at two established day labor centers in Houston, Texas. Grounded theory and open‐coding qualitative methods were used to identify key themes. Three main themes emerged from the interviews. The first theme was that the day laborers' lives were filled with both practical difficulties due to lack of resources and emotional pain due to the separation from their families. The second theme was that day laborers frequently encountered injustice, in the form of lower pay or unfair treatment on the job, due to their illegal status. The third theme was that day laborers found day labor centers to be safe places where not only jobs but also other resources could be accessed to help ease the difficulties of their daily lives. This study provides social workers and other service providers with an improved understanding of the perceptions and needs of day laborers. Implications: Insights from this study indicate that day laborers benefit from services provided by stable day labor centers.
... The first is that day laborers are particularly vulnerable workers in the labor force. Recent studies find that in this often "underground economy," "day laborers have an informal relationship with the labor market, often working for different employers each day, being paid in cash, and lacking key benefits, such as health or unemployment insurance" (GAO 2002, 1); also see Kelleberg, Reskin, and Hudson 2000;Valenzuela and Melendez 2003;Valenzuela 1999Valenzuela , 2001; Homeless Persons Representation Project [HPRP] and CASA de Maryland 2004;del Carmen Fani 2005; also see the list of studies generated by the National Day Laborers Organizing Network). 3 The GAO's 2002 report on day labor working conditions found that such laborers are routinely subject to hazardous work environments and workplace abuses by employers. ...
... The existence of day labor in suburban locations poses a new set of policy issues for local governments and providers of services. While a growing number of sociologists, urban planners, policy makers, and activists have examined the impact and policy implications of this largely immigrant segment of the low-wage workforce (del Carmen Fani 2005;Chishti 2000;Espenshade 2000;GAO 2002;Gordon 2005;HPRP and CASA de Maryland 2004;Maher 2003;Price and Singer 2008;Sassen 1995Sassen , 2000Valenzuela and Melendez 2003;Valenzuela 1999Valenzuela , 2000Waldinger and Lichter 2003;Waldinger 1999), fewer studies have examined how local receiving institutions respond to the need and demands of this population. ...
This article challenges public choice and regime theory interpretations of constraints on local politics, developing instead the institutional logic behind coalitions of local institutional actors designing redistributive policies addressing immigrant newcomers in increasingly diverse suburban jurisdictions. Employing qualitative data from a data set consisting of over 100 in-depth interviews among state and local elected and appointed officials, and community-based leaders in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, the authors find that elected officials, bureaucrats, and nonprofits partner to gain additional leverage to overcome suburban NIMBY problems such as those associated with day labor workers.These partnerships develop for at least three reasons: (1) they give community-based organizations (CBOs) access to resources available in the public sector; (2) for public agencies, these alliances lower the transaction costs associated with overcoming language and cultural barriers between newcomers and existing residents; and (3) these partnerships allow local bureaucrats to minimize outlays of their scarce resources to deal with the problems associated with the demographic shifts taking place in suburbia by essentially outsourcing much of the effort to nonprofit organizations while still allowing local bureaucrats and the elected officials who control their budgets to take credit for the programs these organizations initiate, maintain, and staff.
... Likewise, among 530 New York restaurant workers surveyed by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (2005), 59% reported that they were not properly compensated for their overtime hours and 13% were paid less than the minimum wage. Another recent survey (Valenzuela and Melendez, 2003) found that about half of the 290 day laborers surveyed throughout metropolitan New York have experienced nonpayment of wages (i.e., they were not paid at all). ...
In this article, we analyze the routine violations of employment and labor laws—what we call "unregulated work"—in New York City and Chicago. In these jobs workers are paid less than the minimum wage, are subject to unsafe working conditions, and are fired for attempting to organize. These violations have become a routine part of the organization of production in industries that range from restaurants to construction to laundries to child care. Unregulated work has become a staple in U.S. urban economies and labor markets. In the context of deindustrialization in U.S. cities, these are the jobs that have grown in importance in metropolitan areas. And their role in providing the goods of collective consumption places them at the heart of what is producing "the urban" in contemporary capitalism. Despite this significance, not enough has been done to systematically document and understand unregulated work as it exists across diverse industries. This article begins the process of filling this significant gap in the literature.
... Following the strategy of the New York day labor survey, day laborers on the site were counted and arbitrarily assigned numbers. 23 Day laborers were then selected for interviews based upon whether their arbitrarily assigned number matched the first randomized number appearing in the table. If a person with an assigned number was no longer at the site or refuses to participate, we moved on to the next highest number in the order to be interviewed column. ...
... For example, nearly half of the day laborers surveyed (49 percent, n = 287) reported that workers informally agree on hourly or daily wage rates at the hiring site where they await prospective employers. Through this type of worker collective action, day laborers are able to establish reservation wages at the hiring site (Valenzuela and Meléndez 2003), which probably explains why reported hourly wages cluster around the $8.00 and $10.00 mark. In cases where worker solidarity at an informal hiring site is strong, these wage rates effectively become the minimum wage for the site. ...
This article presents the findings of a survey of day laborers who gather at informal hiring sites in the New York metropolitan area. Day laborers are employed by construction contractors, landscaping companies, homeowners, and small businesses to undertake manual labor jobs for low pay. The work is precarious and steady employment is rare. In addition, the day labor market is characterized by routine violations of labor and employment laws, and workers are often exposed to unsafe working conditions. These conditions prevail, in part, because day laborers largely are disconnected from workers rights' advocacy efforts. However, the creation of worker centers aims to remedy this situation. Several community organizations in the region are now actively contesting abuses in the day labor market and increasing both accountability in and transparency of the hiring process.
... he conventional perceptions we have about day labor and about the populations of persons who day labor. More and more, one sees a similar scene of street corner markets across the various 2 Valenzuela Jr., Abel. 2002. "Working on the Margins in Metropolitan Los Angeles: Immigrants in Day-Labor Work." Migraciones Internacionales. Vol. 1 (2):5-28. 3 Valenzuela, Jr., Abel and Edwin Meléndez. 2003 boroughs of New York City. The scenes may be similar, but the actors are different -men and women of different age, race, ethnicity, and class backgrounds who participate in this type of employment. The New York City context offers the opportunity to readdress day labor in studies that are not only limited to immigration and the informa ...
... Informal day labor is characterized by men (and, in a few cases, women) who congregate in open-air curbside or visible markets such as empty lots, street corners, parking lots, designated public spaces, or store fronts of home improvement establishments to solicit temporary daily work. Soliciting work in this manner is an increasingly visible part of the urban landscape and is growing in the United States (Malpica 1996, Valenzuela 1999, Valenzuela & Melendez 2003, US General Accounting Office 2002 and worldwide in countries and regions such as Mexico (Vanackere 1988), Japan (Fowler 1996, Marr 1997, Giamo 1994, Gill 1994, Marr et al. 2000, Gill 2001, and South America (Townsend 1997). Several important characteristics identify the informal day labor industry and its participants: The market is highly visible, with large hiring sites spread throughout metropolitan Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and other cities in the Southwest, the South, and the Northwest. ...
... Several important characteristics identify the informal day labor industry and its participants: The market is highly visible, with large hiring sites spread throughout metropolitan Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and other cities in the Southwest, the South, and the Northwest. Most day laborers are male, foreign-born, recently arrived and unauthorized, and have low levels of education and a poor command of English (Valenzuela 1999, Valenzuela & Melendez 2003. As a result, the participants in this industry are highly vulnerable and exploited. ...
... The informal day labor market primarily provides temporary job opportunities that last from 1 to 3 days in the broadly defined construction industry, which includes home refurbishment, landscaping, roofing, and painting (Valenzuela 1999). In some regions, it also provides limited light industrial and factory work (Valenzuela & Melendez 2003, Malpica 1996, Fowler 1996, Gill 2001. The formal day labor markets, in addition to construction work, also offer temporary employment in light industrial, factory work, loading and unloading, and warehouse work (Theodore 2000;Kerr & Dole 200l;Roberts & Bartley 2002, unpublished data;Southern Regional Council 1988). ...
Day labor, the practice of searching for work in open-air, informal markets such as street corners or in formal temp agencies, has become an increasingly visible and important means of securing employment for a broad segment of immigrant, primarily male, displaced workers. Our understanding of day labor has been limited by regionally focused or city-based case studies, poorly constructed methodological approaches, inconsistent definitions, and little comparative research. This review discusses the emerging research on day labor, paying particular attention to the practice of day labor, including the market's origins, its contemporary development, and its hiring and wage practices. The review also provides a synopsis of informal, open-air and formal temp agency day labor practices, their spatial and organizational configurations, and an outline of the legal issues and public policies that structure, to a large degree, worker and employer relations in this industry. The review emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of contributions to the topic, including research by sociologists, anthropologists, and urban studies. Areas for future research are suggested.
