Collaborative Research: Latino Labor Migration and the Transformation of Post-Katrina New Orleans

卡特里娜飓风和随之而来的洪水将新奥尔良的大部分地区变成了一片空旷、垃圾遍地的荒地。 在灾难发生后，对工人的需求是拆除和重建数万座建筑物，以及为容纳重建相关涌入的酒店提供工作人员，这吸引了来自美国和拉丁美洲各地的拉丁美洲人前往新奥尔良。 这种动态的情况提供了一个独特的研究机会，研究目前的做法，在劳动力招聘和不断变化的模式和过程中记录和无证移民。 美国无证移民的增加产生了一种劳动关系体系，即分包商负责增加美国蓝领劳动力的比例。 本研究项目将探讨这种分包商驱动的劳动力招聘系统的内部运作，以确定其对工人和周围社区的影响。 为了探讨这些问题，调查人员将对拉丁美洲劳工移民进行调查，此外还将对分包商、雇主、合同工和关键线人进行半结构化访谈。 调查人员将记录新奥尔良缺乏基本权利或服务或长期同种族社区的无证人员日益空间集中的后果。 他们还将提供有关新奥尔良新拉丁裔居民的基本人口和社会经济信息。该研究项目将在三个不同层面为研究人员、管理人员和政策制定者提供有价值的信息：首先，调查的人口和社会经济统计数据将帮助官员更有效地治理卡特里娜飓风后的新奥尔良。 市政府官员目前对拉丁裔劳工的生活和工作条件、英语能力、识字水平、民族血统以及留在该市的意图知之甚少。 第二，收集的招募数据将有助于未来遭受自然灾害的区域预测随后的移徙模式。 该项目将记录工人是如何被招募的，他们到达新奥尔良时的住所，以及他们在招聘过程中的积极和消极经历。 该项目将揭示为什么工作流向外地人，而不是卡特里娜飓风前的城市居民。 最后，收集到的关于无证移民集中人口影响的数据将为关于移民改革的全国辩论提供信息。 无证身份影响到住房消费模式、警察与社区的关系、再投资和其他各种问题。

Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that ensued reduced much of New Orleans to an empty, rubbish-strewn wasteland. In the aftermath of the devastation, the demand for workers to gut and rebuild tens of thousands of structures as well as to staff hotels that housed the reconstruction-related influx drew Latinos to New Orleans from across the United States and Latin America. This dynamic situation presents a unique research opportunity for studying current practices in labor recruitment and evolving patterns and processes in documented and undocumented migration. The rise in undocumented immigration to the United States has produced a system of labor relations whereby subcontractors are responsible for an increasing proportion of the U.S. blue collar labor force. This research project will explore the inner workings of this subcontractor-driven labor recruitment system in order to determine its impact on both workers and the surrounding community. To explore these issues, the investigators will conduct a survey of Latino labor migrants in addition to semi-structured interviews with subcontractors, employers, contracted workers, and key informants. The investigators will document the consequences of the growing spatial concentration of undocumented persons who lack access to basic rights or services or a longstanding co-ethnic community in New Orleans. They also will provide basic demographic and socioeconomic information regarding the new Latino residents of New Orleans.This research project will furnish researchers, administrators, and policy makers with valuable information at three different levels: First, the demographic and socioeconomic statistics from the survey will help officials more effectively govern post-Katrina New Orleans. City officials currently know little about Latino laborers' living and working conditions, English language capabilities, literacy levels, national origins, and intentions of remaining in the city. Second, the data collected on recruitment will help regions struck by natural disasters in the future to anticipate ensuing migration patterns. The project will document how workers were recruited, where they were housed when they arrived in New Orleans, and their positive and negative experiences in the recruitment process. The project will shed light on why jobs went to outsiders rather than pre-Katrina residents of the city. Finally, data collected on the effects of concentrated populations of undocumented immigrants will inform national debates concerning immigration reform. Undocumented status affects housing consumption patterns, police-community relations, reinvestment, and a variety of other issues.