How Good Are Networks for Migrant Job Seekers? Ethnographic Evidence from North Carolina Farm Labor Camps
How Good Are Networks for Migrant Job Seekers? Ethnographic Evidence from North Carolina Farm Labor Camps
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1475-682x.2009.00281.x
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发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Molina, Hilario, II
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Balderrama, Rafael;Molina, Hilario, II
农民工网络是他们寻找工作和尽量减少就业不足战略的重要组成部分。然而，农场工人在文化、物质和制度上的孤立，以及农场工作的流动和秘密特征，已经成为发展强大的横向社区网络联系的主要障碍，否则将有利于互惠和资源共享。因此，与积极的社会资本假设相反，我们认为，农场工人横向关系的缺乏和碎片化特征增加了他们的脆弱性，并将他们锁定在敌对社会环境中的剥削关系中，这使得形成替代关系变得不切实际或不可能。我们的研究是基于参与者在北卡罗来纳州的三个农场劳改营呆了6周的观察。现场证据表明，独居男性农场工人和农场工人家庭这两大群体分裂成更小的群体，每个群体都在追求自己的短期目标。我们的结论是，尽管农场工人网络帮助他们找到并确保临时工作，但他们无法利用网络共享资源，最终不利于参与者的长期社会经济前景。
Migrant farmworker networks are vital components in their job seeking and underemployment minimization strategies. Yet, farmworker cultural, physical, and institutional isolation along with the itinerant and clandestine features of farmwork have become major obstacles in the development of robust lateral communitywide network ties that would otherwise favor reciprocity and resource sharing. Thus, contrary to the positive social capital assumption, we argue that the paucity and fragmented features of farmworkers' lateral ties have increased their vulnerability and locked them in exploitative relationships in a hostile social environment that makes impractical or impossible the formation of alternative ties. Our study is based on participant observation through a 6-week stay in three North Carolina farm labor camps. On-site evidence shows that the two larger groups of solitary male farmworkers and farmworking families break up into smaller groups, each group in pursuit of its own short-term goals. We conclude that, even though farmworker networks help them to find and ensure temporary jobs, their inability to use the networks to share resources is ultimately detrimental for participants' long-term socioeconomic prospects.