Guest workers or unauthorized immigrants? The case of forest workers in the United States
Guest workers or unauthorized immigrants? The case of forest workers in the United States
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客工或未经授权的移民？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
V. Casanova
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Brinda Sarathy;V. Casanova
本研究探讨了地区差异的法律的地位的林业工人在太平洋西北部和美国东南部，使用美国劳工部的数据和定性实地调查在亚拉巴马和俄勒冈州。作者发现，在俄勒冈州的联邦土地上，H-2B外来工人的数量明显少于亚拉巴马和东南部的私人森林种植园。相比之下，在俄勒冈州的联邦土地上，许多工人没有证件。这一差异在很大程度上可以用太平洋西北部（联邦土地）和东南部（主要是私人土地）森林工作规模经济的差异来解释。研究还发现，无证移民和外来工的工作条件没有真实的区别两个群体都面临劳动剥削。林业的外来工人，其中许多人以前没有工作经验，也没有进入美国社交网络的机会，在工作场所面临极端孤立，对承包商有恩于人，担心一旦投诉就会失去工作，而且通常不知道自己的基本权利。相比之下，俄勒冈州的许多无证林业工人属于已建立的社交网络，通过这些网络，他们被招募到林业劳工队伍中。然而，未经授权的工人也容易受到劳动剥削，因为他们害怕被驱逐出境，并被迫向其亲属雇主。改善所有林业工人的劳动条件和执行现有劳动法的政策建议包括：更好地跟踪各州的工人，以监测劳动虐待，向州劳动部门分配更多资源，以促进工人外展和工地检查，以及土地管理官员和劳工部之间更好的沟通。
This study examines regional differences in the legal status of forest workers in the Pacific Northwest and Southeastern United States, using United States Department of Labor data and qualitative fieldwork in Alabama and Oregon. The authors find that there are significantly fewer H-2B guest workers on federal lands in Oregon than on privately owned forest plantations in Alabama, and the Southeast more generally. By contrast, numerous workers on federal lands in Oregon are undocumented. This difference may largely be explained by variations in the economies of scale in forest work in the Pacific Northwest (federal lands) and the Southeast (mainly private lands). The study also finds that there is no real difference in the working conditions of undocumented immigrants and guest workers—both groups face labor exploitation. Guest workers in the forest industry, many of whom have no previous work experience or access to social networks in the United States, face extreme isolation at worksites, are beholden to contractors, fear losing their jobs if they complain, and are generally unaware of their basic rights. By contrast, many undocumented forest workers in Oregon belong to established social networks through which they are recruited onto forest labor crews. However, unauthorized workers are also vulnerable to labor exploitation because they fear deportation and are obliged to their kin-employers. Policy recommendations to improve labor conditions and enforce existing labor laws for all forest workers include: better tracking of workers across states to monitor labor abuses, allocating more resources to state labor departments to facilitate worker outreach and worksite inspections, and better communication among land management officials and the Department of Labor.