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IRCA and the Unionization of Mexican and Central American Undocumented Workers in Los Angeles County
Author(s) -
Delgado Hector L.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1992.tb00396.x
Subject(s) - apprehension , immigration reform , deportation , legislation , immigration , illegal immigrants , demographic economics , illegal immigration , political science , labour economics , business , economics , law , immigration law , psychology , cognitive psychology
This article explores the likely impact of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) on the unionization o f undocumented workers. Research conducted prior to IRCA challenges the conventional wisdom that undocumented workers cannot be organized because of their fear of apprehension and deportation by the INS. Preliminary research subsequent to the passage of this legislation in 1986 suggests that essentially the same factors that mitigated the fear of the INS and made the undocumenteds as receptive to unionization as other classes of workers similarly located in the labor market prior to IRCA are operating in the post‐IRCA period. The future “organizability” of undocumented workers rests considerably on unions’determination to organize them and whether they continue to be protected by U.S. labor laws.