Managed Migration and the Value of Labor

David Griffith博士(东卡罗来纳大学)和Ricardo Contrera博士(东卡罗来纳大学)，以及其合作者Elizabeth Juárez Cerdi博士(El Colegio de Michoacán)和Kerry PreiBisch博士(Guelph大学)将对有管理的移民(客工)项目的派遣社区效应进行研究。有管理的移民计划在全球范围内有所增加；因此，越来越多来自墨西哥和中美洲的客工有机会体验美国和加拿大的劳动力市场和工作制度。然而，与此同时，拉丁美洲的许多家庭都在努力维持传统的生计，如捕鱼和耕种，以国内生产为基础--家庭经济活动依靠家庭劳动力，以维护和繁衍家庭单位及其支持的文化传统和社会机构为导向。在北美出卖劳动力的工人和在传统环境中工作的工人同时出现，为比较研究工作、劳动价值和幸福感提供了一个难得的机会。研究人员将与墨西哥和危地马拉的一个跨国团队合作，调查移民的经历与彼此以及与家乡社区其他人的比较，特别关注他们如何理解和价值劳动。研究人员的首要问题是，在西方劳动力市场出售劳动力的经历是否会影响国内劳动力价值的文化基础经济逻辑。这项研究将在四个社区进行，这些社区拥有一系列国内生产者业务(手工、农业和渔业)，并将大量客工送往北美劳动力市场。研究人员将使用定性研究方法的组合来收集数据，包括：社区映射、几个分阶段的访谈、焦点小组、横断面走访，以及使用文化共识测试、句子框架任务和堆积分类任务的文化领域分析。这项研究的发现将有助于社会科学对经济活动、文化和社会福祉之间的关系进行理论分析。鉴于当前的全球经济危机挑战了主流的经济逻辑，关注与劳动相关的非货币价值是重要的。了解不同类型的经济运作中的劳动力如何产生幸福、尊严和社会合法性，可以帮助北美和拉丁美洲的政策制定者促进具有有益的个人和社会结果的经济替代方案，并制定更有效的有管理的移民计划。资助这项研究还支持国际研究合作和教育。

Dr. David Griffith (East Carolina University) and Dr. Ricardo Contreras (East Carolina University), along with collaborators Dr. Elizabeth Juárez Cerdi (El Colegio de Michoacán) and Dr. Kerry Preibisch (University of Guelph), will undertake research on the sending community effects of managed migration (guestworker) programs. There has been a global increase in managed migration programs; therefore, increasing numbers of guestworkers from Mexico and Central America have had the opportunity to experience United States and Canadian labor markets and work regimes. At the same time, however, many families across Latin America are struggling to maintain traditional livelihoods, such as fishing and farming, based on domestic production -- household economic operations that draw on family labor and are oriented toward the maintenance and reproduction of the domestic unit and its supporting cultural traditions and social institutions. The co-occurrence of workers who sell their labor in North America and workers who work in traditional contexts provides an exceptional opportunity for a comparative study of work, labor values, and well-being.Working with a multinational team in Mexico and Guatemala, the researchers will investigate how the migrants' experiences compare to each other and to others in their home communities, with a particular focus on how they understand and value labor. The researchers' overarching question is whether the experience of selling labor in Western labor markets affects the culturally based economic logic of how labor is valued at home. The research will be carried out in four communities that have a range of domestic producer operations (artisanal, farming, and fishing) and also send large numbers of guestworkers to the North American labor markets. The researchers will gather data using a combination of qualitative research methods, including: community mappings, several time-staged phases of interviewing, focus groups, transect walks, and cultural domain analyses employing cultural consensus testing, sentence frame tasks, and pile-sorting tasks. Findings from this research will contribute to social scientific theorizing of the relation between economic activities, culture, and social well-being. The focus on nonmonetary values attached to labor is important in light of the current global economic crisis, which has challenged prevailing economic logic. Understanding how labor in different kinds of economic operations produce happiness, dignity, and social legitimacy can assist policy-makers across both North America and Latin America in promoting economic alternatives that have beneficial individual and social outcomes and in developing more effective managed migration programs. Funding this research also supports international research collaboration and education.