Researcher finds 'ghost workers' common in migrant farm work [View all]
28-Jun-2016
Researcher finds 'ghost workers' common in migrant farm work
University of Colorado Denver
IMAGE: A woman wearing protective clothing peels off stickers to brand the melons she is packing on a field-packing device in California's Central Valley. view more
Credit: Sarah Horton
New research by Sarah Horton, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado Denver, reveals that employers in agricultural industries often take advantage of migrants' inability to work legally by making their employment contingent upon working under the false or borrowed identity documents provided by employers.
Horton's study, published this month in the Anthropology of Work Review, shows that many employers provide employees who do not have legal status with the valid work authorization documents of their friends or family.
Farm workers call this practice, which essentially renders them invisible to the state and federal governments, "working as a ghost."
Horton shows that by providing workers with borrowed documents, many agribusiness companies disguise their employment of undocumented immigrants from authorities, hide the use of child labor, and suppress worker's compensation claims.
More:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uocd-rf062716.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
