Doctoral Dissertation Research: From Agriculture to Information Technology: American Guestworkers and the Law in Flexible Labor Markets

本论文项目考察了通过临时外国人就业监管法律在美国构成的法律实践类型。联邦对农业和紧急来客工人雇佣合同的行政强制执行可追溯到1940年代；然而，直到20世纪90年代，非农业外来工才可以求助于这些保护措施来解决就业问题。随着越来越多的非农业外来务工人员进出“新自由主义工作场所”（即灵活劳动），我们看到就业保护的循环，以及国家纠纷处理和法律动员在这一领域的增加。然而，与此同时，雇主的终止权几乎是绝对的。与以往的外来务工人员计划不同，雇主解雇外来务工人员不需要举行行政听证会。在PI的监督下，论文学生将调查旧的，临时的农业和紧急就业框架如何在当代工作场所塑造当前灵活劳动的法律法规。与新自由主义劳动监管的学术研究相反，这位论文学生认为，灵活的工作场所不是“不受监管的劳动力角落”，而是国家“推出”对私人雇佣合同实施最低限度形式的领域。借鉴历史上的社会法律方法，该研究侧重于不同时间和劳动部门争议处理的变化，以及客工对雇主提出的索赔类型。通过法律人类学研究，本文探讨了雇主的权力如何塑造客工对其权利的看法。最终，本研究接近国家监管发展，就业法和法律索赔的未研究领域。该研究为待定的客工政策和法律提供了历史背景，将现有的法律实践带入了关于法律设计和工作场所正义的辩论中。

This dissertation project examines the type of legal practice that is constituted through temporary alien employment regulatory laws in the United States. Federal administrative enforcement of agricultural and emergency guestworkers' employment contracts dates to the 1940s; however, it is only since the 1990s that non-agricultural guestworkers can turn to these protections for help with employment problems. As more and more non-agricultural guestworkers enter and exit "neoliberalized workplaces" (that is, flexible labor), we see the circulation of employment protections as well as an increase in state dispute processing and mobilization of law in this area. Yet, at the same time, an employer's right to terminate is almost absolute. Unlike in previous guestworker programs, an administrative hearing is not required for an employer to fire a guestworker employee.Under the supervision of the PI, the dissertation student will investigate how the older, temporary agricultural and emergency employment framework shapes current legal regulations of flexible labor across contemporary workplaces. Contrary to scholarship on neoliberal labor regulation, the dissertation student argues that flexible workplaces are not "unregulated corners of labor," but rather areas where the state is "rolling out" a minimalist form of enforcement over private employment contracts. Drawing upon historical sociolegal methods, the research focuses on variations in dispute processing across time and labor sectors and the kinds of claims guestworkers have filed/make against their employers. Through legal anthropological research, this dissertation examines how the power of employers shapes guestworkers' perceptions of their entitlements.Ultimately, this research approaches an unstudied area of state regulatory development, employment law, and legal claims-making. The research provides a historical context for proposed pending guestworker policies and laws, bringing existing legal practices into the debate about legal design and workplace justice.