Synopses & Reviews
How has Latino immigration transformed the South? In what ways is the presence of these newcomers complicating efforts to organize for workplace justice?
Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing plants and communities, where large numbers of Latin American migrants were recruited in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest-paid jobs in the country. As Americaandrsquo;s voracious appetite for chicken has grown, so has the industryandrsquo;s reliance on immigrant workers, whose structural position makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
Based on the authorandrsquo;s six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, this book explores how Black, white, and new Latino Mississippians have lived and understood these transformations. Activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse argues that peopleandrsquo;s racial identifications and relationships to the poultry industry prove vital to their interpretations of the changes they are experiencing. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the industryandrsquo;s growth and drive to lower labor costs, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living paints a compelling ethnographic portrait of neoliberal globalization and calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.
Synopsis
What does globalization look like in the rural South? Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing communities and workplaces, where large numbers of Latin American migrants began arriving in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest paid jobs in the country. Based on six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse explores how Black, white, and new Latino residents have experienced and understood these transformations. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the poultry industryandrsquo;s growth, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.
About the Author
Angela Stuesse is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.