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A New Approach To Migrant Labor Rights Enforcement: The Crisis Of Undocumented Worker Abuse And Mexican Consular Advocacy In The United States, Xóchitl Bada, Shannon Gleeson

Shannon Gleeson

This paper examines the genesis and evolution of consular efforts to enforce the workplace rights of immigrant workers in the United States. We draw on a survey of 52 Mexican consulates in the United States, in-depth interviews with the initial cohort of 15 consular participants in the Semana de Derechos Laborales/Labor Rights Week, and several key informants who helped coordinate these efforts in the community. Our findings confirm a shift from “limited” to “active” engagement over the last decade on the part of the Mexican government (Délano 2011), placing special emphasis on the role played by non-governmental actors in producing …