Consuming illegality : the political demography of migrant farm labor in California and Andalucia, 1985-2005

Abstract

The expansion of fruit, vegetable and horticultural (FVH) production in California and Andalucia has been contemporaneous with a decline in 'native' farm labor and restrictions on lower-skilled migration. Resulting increases in the populations of unauthorized farmworkers have contributed to mounting tension over the rights and numbers of migrants in Spain and the United States. Yet, the similarities in farm labor outcomes contrast with the distinct geographical, temporal, sociocultural and institutional conditions in which these labor markets have evolved. Using Californian and andaluz FVH as exemplars, the dissertation explores the problem and problematization of unauthorized migration in the United States and Spain from 1985 through 2005. Four primary themes -uncovered in interviews with migration researchers, advocates, union representatives, employers and migrants -guide assessment of the relationship between the reproduction of illegality and the regulation of migration and FVH production: the (1) recruitment and (2) retention of unauthorized farmworkers and the role of (3) interest groups and (4) the state in migration and farm labor policymaking. Legislation, mass media and US and Spanish census and survey data illustrate demographic, economic and political shifts over this period. The study illuminates the primary, but not always direct, role of policies and politics in the magnitude and composition of migration and settlement patterns in both countries. Laissez faire regulation and symbolic enforcement have shaped the ethnic, legal and gender composition of the farm labor market. Political and structural constraints, as well as economic pressures, have institutionalized illegality in FVH agriculture, subverting the cost of human rights to the price of food. Coupled with economic growth, this outsourcing in situ has spurred labor market intermediation and fostered poverty in rural communities; agreement on a farm labor fix has been limited, although not eclipsed, by public contestation over illegal migration. Show more