Date of Award

1-1-2015

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

Josef Korbel School of International Studies

First Advisor

Aaron Schneider, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Rebecca Galemba

Third Advisor

Sarah Hamilton

Fourth Advisor

Nancy Reichman

Keywords

Construction, Day labor, Immigration, Precarity, Structural violence, Undocumented

Abstract

Day laborers occupy an essential position in Denver’s booming construction industry. Day laborers make up a highly flexible, highly effective workforce able to respond to market changes. For day laborers, informal day-labor gathering points provide increased control over working hours and employee-employer relationships when compared to traditional wage labor. Still, recent legislation and policies around irregular migration has forced large numbers of workers who may have benefited from the stability of full-time regular employment into the informal sector. The day laborers’ flexibility also exposes them to employers constantly inventing ways to deny them the wages and benefits they are owed. Despite changes in Colorado law in attempts to strengthen workers’ recourse against their employers, and despite social and individual tactics day laborers employ to mitigate their vulnerability, systematic structural, symbolic, and everyday violence continue to advantage employers.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Camden Ryan Bowman

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

101 p.

Discipline

Cultural Anthropology, Labor Relations, Latin American Studies

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