Newcomers in the Workplace: Immigrants and the Restructuring of the U.S. Economy
With the steady arrival of immigrants from Asia and Latin America and the restructuring of U.S. industry in response to the global economy, the face of the American workplace has changed dramatically in the last decade. Newcomers in the Workplace examines the role of new immigrants in this changing economy. Using case studies from Philadelphia, Miami, and Garden City, Kansas, this collection explores a wide variety of workplaces where new immigrants are found. These essays observe new immigrants employed on the killfloor and processing lines of meatpacking plants, behind sewing machines in apparel factories, at construction sites, and in service jobs at hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores. The contributors emphasize the varying experiences of men and women in workplaces characterized by a gendered division of labor and different patterns of immigrant and minority hiring.
The essays demonstrate that new immigrants – Cubans, Haitians, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Laotians, and Vietnamese – are active participants in the U.S. workplace and play a crucial role in providing labor for relocated plants, industries hard-pressed by foreign competition and the ever-expanding service sector. Focusing on relations between managers and workers, between workers and customers, and among workers themselves, the contributors show how new immigrants join established residents in developing strategies of resistance, establishing ties across ethnic boundaries, fostering individual identities, and ensuring their own economic survival.
Louise Lamphere 