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使新奥尔良的大部分地区变成了一片空荡荡的、垃圾遍地的荒地。在灾难发生后，对工人拆除和重建数万座建筑，以及为与重建相关的涌入的酒店提供员工的需求，吸引了来自美国和拉丁美洲各地的拉美裔人来到新奥尔良。这一动态情况为研究劳动力招聘的当前做法以及有记录和无记录移徙的演变模式和程序提供了独特的研究机会。进入美国的非法移民的增加产生了一种劳动关系体系，在这种体系中，分包商在美国蓝领劳动力中所占的比例越来越大。这项研究项目将探索这一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。为了探索这些问题，调查人员除了对分包商、雇主、合同工和关键线人进行半结构化访谈外，还将对拉丁裔劳工移民进行调查。调查人员将记录新奥尔良非法移民日益集中的后果，这些非法移民无法获得基本权利或服务，也无法获得长期存在的同族社区。他们还将提供有关新奥尔良新的拉丁裔居民的基本人口和社会经济信息。这项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，调查中的人口和社会经济统计数据将帮助官员更有效地管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、国籍和留在该市的意图知之甚少。其次，收集的招募数据将帮助未来遭受自然灾害袭击的地区预测随后的移民模式。该项目将记录工人是如何被招聘的，当他们到达新奥尔良时，他们被安置在哪里，以及他们在招聘过程中的积极和消极经历。该项目将阐明为什么就业机会流向了外地人，而不是卡特里娜飓风前的城市居民。最后，收集的关于无证移民人口集中的影响的数据将为关于移民改革的全国辩论提供参考。无证身份影响住房消费模式、警察与社区的关系、再投资和各种其他问题。

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.