Law Commons^™

Free Trade, Immigrant Workers, And Employment Discrimination, Angela D. Morrison

Angela D. Morrison

This article reframes the outward-looking perspective on workers’ rights provisions in free trade agreements. It argues that those provisions provide an opportunity to reinforce the workplace rights of noncitizen workers in the United States. Scholars and worker advocates have criticized recent free trade agreements for their lack of enforcement mechanisms and protections for workers in developing countries. They argue that this has encouraged a race to the bottom on the part of multi-national corporations who relocate to developing countries to take advantage of cheap labor costs, thereby costing U.S. workers’ jobs.

This article shifts the focus. Instead, it argues that …

Working On Immigration: Three Models Of Labor And Employment Regulation, Rick Su

Rick Su

The desire to tailor our immigration system to the economic interests of our nation is as old as its founding. Yet after more than two centuries of regulatory tinkering, we seem no closer to finding the right balance. Contemporary observers largely ascribe this failure to conflicts over immigration. Shifting the focus, I suggest here that longstanding disagreements in the world of economic regulations — in particular, tensions over the government’s role in regulating labor conditions and employment practices — also explains much of the difficulty behind formulating a policy approach to immigration. In other words, we cannot reach a political …

Laborers Or Criminals? The Impact Of Crimmigration On Labor Standards Enforcement, Kati Griffith

Kati Griffith

[Excerpt] As we examine the criminalization of immigration, commonly referred to as “crimmigration” (Stumpf, 2006), it is essential to consider its impact on other areas of law and policy that involve immigrants but are not traditionally thought of as formal elements of either criminal law or immigration law. Why? As Hortensia’s story illustrates, crimmigration may unexpectedly affect protections and rights that relate to immigrants’ experiences but come from other areas of law and policy. This chapter explores the impact of crimmigration on labor standards enforcement. By labor standards enforcement, the chapter refers mainly to the wage and hour, health and …

Layers Of Vulnerability In Occupational Health And Saftey For Migrant Workers: Case Studies From Canada And The United Kingdom, Malcolm Sargeant, Eric Tucker

Eric M. Tucker

In many high-income countries, like Canada and the United Kingdom, there has recently been a significant increase in the number of migrant workers entering and participating in their labour markets. This article is concerned with the implications of this phenomenon for protective labour laws and, in particular, for occupational health and safety regulation. We identify a framework for assessing the OHS vulnerabilities of migrant workers, using a layered approach which assists in identifying the risk factors. Using this layer of vulnerability framework, we compare the situation of at-risk migrant workers in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Migrant Labour In The United States: Working Beneath The Floor For Free Labour?, Maria Ontiveros

Maria L. Ontiveros

This chapter argues that the combination of United States employment and immigration laws create a system for the exploitation of immigrant workers that runs counter to the purpose of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US constitution. The chapter provides an overview to US employment and migration laws and then identifies specific problems raised for immigrant workers. The chapter then describes Thirteenth Amendment jurisprudence and shows how the current system of laws runs afoul of the amendments purpose.

Protecting Immigrant Workers Through Interagency Cooperation, Jayesh Rathod

Jayesh Rathod

Stephen Lee’s Monitoring Immigration Enforcement offers a promising prescription for resolving the long-standing tension between the workplace enforcement priorities of the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the efforts by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) to protect the rights of immigrant workers. Lee convincingly describes - often with the aid of rich historical examples - the origins of the chronic imbalance of power between DHS and the DOL, and the limitations of past efforts to synchronize the work of the respective agencies. Lee’s proposal for interagency coordination, in the form of ex ante monitoring by the DOL of worksite enforcement …

Illegal Immigration And The American Labor Force: The Use Of "Soft" Data For Analysis, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

No abstract provided.

Illegal Immigration And The American Labor Force: The Use Of "Soft" Data For Analysis, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

No abstract provided.

A Season Of Change: Reforming The H2b Guest Worker Program, Jayesh Rathod

Jayesh Rathod

Immigrant Workers And The Thirteenth Amendment, Maria Ontiveros

Maria L. Ontiveros

This chapter examines the treatment of immigrant workers through the lens of the Thirteenth Amendment. It examines how the intersection of labor and immigration laws impact immigrant workers in general, "guest workers" and undocumented immigrants. It argues that immigrant workers can be seen as a caste of nonwhite workers laboring beneath the floor for free labor in ways which violate the Thirteenth Amendment. Further, it suggests ways in which immigrant workers can use the Thirteenth Amendment to improve their situation and offers an analysis of how the Thirteenth Amendment can form a bridge for organizing between labor, civil rights, immigration …

The Thirteenth Amendment And Access To Education For Children Of Undocumented Workers: A New Look At Plyler V. Doe, Maria Ontiveros, Joshua Drexler

Maria L. Ontiveros

This paper examines the extent to which the Thirteenth Amendment can be used to guarantee access to public education for the children of undocumented workers. It offers a reimagined version of Plyer, written using the Thirteenth Amendment, instead of the Fourteenth Amendment. After offering a brief summary of Thirteenth Amendment jurisprudence, it offers a variety of theoretical frameworks for analyzing the denial of education under the U.S. Constitution. It argues that the Thirteenth Amendment can provide a powerful tool for litigation, moral persuasion, organizing and legislation in the area.