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“As Good As It Gets” : Undocumented Latino Day Laborers Negotiating Discrimination in S an F rancisco and B erkeley, C alifornia, USA
Author(s) -
QUESADA JAMES,
ARREOLA SONYA,
KRAL ALEX,
KHOURY SAHAR,
ORGANISTA KURT C.,
WORBY PAULA
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1111/ciso.12033
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , locale (computer software) , negotiation , persecution , immigration , perception , demographic economics , advertising , business , psychology , political science , geography , economics , computer science , law , archaeology , neuroscience , politics , operating system
Undocumented L atino day laborers in the U nited S tates are vulnerable to being arrested and expelled at any time. This social fact shapes their everyday lives in terms of actions taken and strategies deployed to mitigate being confronted, profiled, and possibly incarcerated and deported. While perceptions of threat and bouts of discrimination are routine among undocumented L atino day laborers, their specific nature vary according to multiple social factors and structural forces that differ significantly from locale to locale. The experience of discrimination is often tacitly negotiated through perceptions, decisions, and actions toward avoiding or moderating its ill effects. This essay examines urban undocumented L atino day laborers over a variety of sites in the greater S an F rancisco B ay A rea, which, compared to many metropolitan areas in the U.S . is “as good as it gets” in terms of being socially tolerated and relatively safe from persecution. Nonetheless, tacit negotiations are necessary to withstand or overcome challenges presented by idiosyncratic and ever changing global, national/state, and local dynamics of discrimination.