Abstract
Language, Immigration and Labor uses a critical ethnographic approach to examine how discursive practices – particularly those involved in negotiating and hiring – establish and maintain structures of power between day labourers and their employers in the bilingual environment of an Arizona border town. With the explicit purpose of calling for engagement in intercultural communication, DuBord examines how labourers, volunteers and employers position language ability, especially various levels of bilingualism, as more or less desirable: those labourers who speak more English have an easier time navigating the process of finding work, while employers who speak Spanish are able to exert their power a little more by speaking directly to all of the workers without the need for intermediaries. Working as a volunteer ‘language broker’ herself, DuBord acts as a participant observer at a day labour centre in a church parking lot of a town she names Saguaro City. This role allows her to build rapport with the various parties involved and to support the mission of the democratically maintained centre.
In the six chapters of the book, DuBord highlights specific aspects of how language affects immigrant day labourer identity, including linguistic capital in English, relationships built with employers, being a ‘good worker’ and the ability to communicate interculturally. The author effectively portrays the different stakeholders – including labourers, volunteers and employers – of the centre through descriptive analysis, establishing how each role is integral to the maintenance of such a programme. On several occasions the lines are blurred, as many of the labourers also volunteer in various capacities in order to ensure the continual success of the centre. DuBord also examines the role of the linguistic capacity of the various stakeholders, particularly the day labourers. The employers generally consider day labourers who have a good command of English more desirable, but varying degrees of bilingualism make the various interactions display power in different ways. Furthermore, native English speakers who attempt to speak Spanish with limited ability tend to lose the respect of their Spanish-speaking interlocutors.
The role of immigration is examined as well, but to a lesser extent, as power through language ability and stakeholder status are at the centre of the analysis. When visitors or employers at the day labour centre discuss immigration status, DuBord reminds the inquirer, as well as the reader, that the day labour centre does not discriminate based on residency status, as it attempts to be a safe space from border control and other potentially discriminatory or regulatory entities. In one section, however, there is discussion about the day labourers not understanding how White citizens could potentially be homeless and not look for permanent work, and in another section, how the Mexican American citizens are able to take advantage of additional opportunities due to their privileges of being citizens, including having a strong command of English or holding a driver’s licence. While DuBord’s decision to downplay issues of immigration – in order to distance her discussion of bilingualism and language ability from the stigma attached to ‘illegal’ migrants – is understandable, a deeper engagement with the matter would have been fruitful in providing additional context. For example, Arizona’s legislation restricting access to services such as English classes to those with a legal residence status plays a role in explaining why many of the labourers’ English was not at the level that many wished it to be. Nevertheless, the thick ethnographic description of the day labour centre allows the reader to understand US immigrants in a way that humanizes their existence, thereby calling for improving the dominant society’s treatment towards them.
This study is grounded in anthropological linguistics, but DuBord also draws from other paradigms in her study, including critical race theory and performativity theories. This book effectively illustrates the daily life of a social group that needs to navigate language in order to successfully gain admission into the setting they seek to enter, and provides important insights into how day labourers think and act in order to work effectively in a society that generally marginalizes and tries to take advantage of them. DuBord’s work both as a volunteer at the day labour centre and as an ethnographer provides a positive look at residents on the border trying to navigate work in order to make a living. All in all, this work gives the day labourers a voice in American society, demonstrating the power of using critical approaches to research, particularly critical ethnography and critical discourse analysis.