Based on a collaborative ethnography with Lideres Campesinas, a state-wide farmworker women's organization in California, this essay explores how activists have created multi-issued organizing strategies grounded in family structures and a community-based social world. Building on Gloria Anzaldua's theory of nepantla, it illustrates how campesina…

In this article, I add to the critique of the myth of the American Dream by examining ethnographically the ways its dominant discourse is circulated to Khmer American middle school children of migratory agricultural workers. Drawing on social theories of discourse, I juxtapose the ideology embedded in the American Dream Discourse with the…

Henri Lefebvre suggested that social researchers engage in "the concrete analysis of rhythms" in order to reveal the "pedagogy of appropriation (the appropriation of the body, as of spatial practice)". Lefebvre's spatial analysis has influenced educational researchers, while the idea of "pedagogy" has travelled beyond…

This study focuses on the role of social ties and human capital in the integration of Latino immigrants into the local economy. This analysis extends earlier research by focusing on more rural contexts with limited labor-market opportunities and less access to social resources provided by coethnics. We reconsider conclusions of previous studies by…

Describes provisions of Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) allowing for Special Agricultural Workers (SAWs) and Replenishment Agricultural Workers (RAWs), to replace SAWs who leave the workforce. Describes government policy for implementing RAW program, determining need and supply, immigrant reporting requirements, eligibility…

This article is adapted from "Chew Heong v. United States: Chinese Exclusion and the Federal Courts", written by Lucy Salyer, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, for inclusion in the Federal Judicial Center's project, "Federal Trials and Great Debates in United States History." In 1882, Congress…

New immigration legislation imposes civil and criminal penalties on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, and requires employers to verify the legal status of every new hire. The law also extends amnesty to possibly millions of undocumented immigrants who entered the United States prior to 1982. In addition, undocumented immigrants…

AGRICULTURAL LABORERS HAVE BEEN INEFFECTIVE IN ORGANIZING A LABOR UNION. THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT WRITTEN IN 1935 ORIGINALLY HAD PROVISIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL LABORERS, BUT IT WAS DELETED BEFORE FINAL PASSAGE. EARLY ORGANIZING ATTEMPTS OCCURRED IN THE LATE YEARS OF THE 19TH CENTURY WHEN CHINESE IMMIGRANTS ORGANIZED PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS…

Poverty is one of the major threats to the realization of children's rights worldwide and in South Africa. Currently, 66% of South African children live in severe poverty. This places all other rights at risk; the rights guaranteed by the South African Constitution and by the UN Convention. Poverty and inequality in South Africa continue to…

This document is a transcript of a hearing on provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that govern the entry and the stay of certain classes of nonimmigrants, including temporary or H-2 workers and foreign students. The hearing also reviewed the proposal to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that visas could be waived for…

The volume of labor certifications granted to foreign workers by the Department of Labor during the fiscal year 1968 totaled 141,827, a 21.7 percent increase over fiscal year 1967 (116,499). This increase is attributed to the Immigration and Nationality Act which became effective on July 1, 1968. A series of tables describes alien workers approved…

An astounding construction feat of Chinese Americans was the work done on the western section of the transcontinental railroad. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new line took place in Sacramento in 1863, but up until 1865, less than 50 miles of running track had been laid, and this was over relatively level land. The construction superintendent…

Migration histories from residents of a rural Michoacan town were used to construct successive migrant cohorts for the period 1940-1978. Analysis indicates that prior to 1965, migration was limited primarily to male agricultural workers. Since 1965, increased numbers of women, children, and legal U.S. residents have made up the migrant population.…

Hired farmworkers make up 1% of all U.S. workers but one-third of production agricultural workers. In 1996, compared to all workers, hired farmworkers earned significantly less and were more likely to be younger, never married, Hispanic, and noncitizens. Over half had not graduated from high school, and three-quarters of noncitizens had only an…