Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina Has a New Book!
Dise Collective Member Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina has co-authored a new book entitled Legalized Inequalities: Immigration and Race in the Low-wage Workplace.
Dr. Campos-Medina is a researcher, RTE Faculty and labour educator focusing on the intersection of race, immigration status and worker’s rights, as well as a Senior Extension Associate Faculty and the Executive Director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She leads research, policy innovation and training to advance worker justice, collective bargaining rights and the interest of workers in today’s economy and society.
Drawing on interviews with over three hundred low-wage Haitian and Central American workers and worker advocates, Griffith, Gleeson, Dubuisson, and Campos-Medina reveal how U.S. policies produce and sustain job instability and insecurity. Together, contemporary U.S. labor and employment law, immigration policy, and enduring racial inequality work in tandem to keep workers’ wages low, lock them into substandard working conditions, and minimize opportunities to push for change. Workplace regulations meant to protect workers are weak and underenforced, privileging employers over workers. At-will employment policies, which allow employers to terminate employees without cause, discourage workers from bargaining for better jobs or holding employers accountable for even the most egregious mistreatment. Federal immigration policy further disempowers workers by deputizing employers to act as immigration enforcement agents through immigration status verification requirements. Undocumented workers often believe they must endure maltreatment or risk deportation. Anti-immigrant sentiment—encouraged by U.S. policy—impacts workers across all status groups. Additionally, despite a proliferation of civil rights legislation, racial disparities remain in the workplace. Workers of color are often paid less, forced to complete more dangerous and demeaning tasks, and subjected to racial harassment.