The Status of Latino Migrant Workers in the United States

Despite six decades of federal funding intended to monitor migrant workers, relatively little is known about this population. Recent estimates indicate that there are between two and three million migrant workers in the United States. In addition, it is estimated that more than 98% of migrant workers were born in Mexico or Central America. This chapter focuses in the Latino migrant worker experience in the United States and its impact on their living conditions. Latino migrant workers (LMWs) constitute a paradigmatic case of a population subject to structural vulnerability. Their subordinated position in the global economy and their culturally depreciated status in the United States are exacerbated by legalpersecution. These processes render LMWs structurally vulnerable to abuse and explotation. Defined as a positionality that imposes physical and emotional suffering on specific populations in patterned ways, structural vulnerability is a product of economic exploitation and cultural discrimination. We argue that the dysfunctional U.S. immigration system creates a system of structural vulnerability which generates precarious circumstances in LMWs; everyday lives and health status.