Racial geographies and the challenges of day labor formalization: a case study from San Diego

Recent debates surrounding immigration in the United States have brought renewed attention to day laborers people who engage in informal and temporary employment in sectors such as construction, landscaping etc. While not necessarily the case, day laborers are typically portrayed as undocumented workers by the media and as 'illegals' by extreme anti-immigrant groups (for example, see recent documentary films such as Farmingville (2004) and The Invisible Chapel (2007)). Overall, day laborers and day labor conflicts have become one of the most visible faces of the ongoing immigration debate. Yet, the growth of day labor and the expansion of day labor hiring sites into almost every metropolitan area and all regions of the United States (Valenzuela et al. 2006) are important to geographers for reasons outside of the immigration debate.

The visibility of day labor and the appearance of day labor hiring sites raise new questions and debate about public space and its 'proper' use. The establishment of a new day labor hiring site often creates a locational conflict a conflict over the right to space (Mitchell 2003). The community tensions and conflicts created by day labor are disputes over which spaces, if any, day laborers have the right to occupy. Day labor conflicts are diverse, and communities and municipal governments negotiate day labor conflicts in different ways. Hiring sites exist in different geographic settings (e.g. neighborhoods with different residential demographics or character), and different settings involve many stakeholders (e.g. day laborers, local residents, business owners, law enforcement). The relationships between settings and stakeholders are also complex and dynamic; therefore, no single solution exists to the problems that arise around a day labor hiring site.

Day labor researchers and labor advocates argue that formalizing space for worker congregation, with a formal structure for job distribution, access to restroom facilities, and other amenities, is the most comprehensive solution currently available (Camou 2002; Valenzuela et al. 2006; Crotty 2007). We agree that formalization is the most progressive and successful method for regulating day labor. However, the way that the formalization process takes place has significant implications for the success of the hiring site. The physical, social, and bureaucratic situations of a formal hiring site are crucially important to consider during the formalization process. It is also important to understand how changes in the physical and social environment of the surrounding area may affect the hiring site.

To illustrate these points, we examine the micro-geographies of a formal day labor worker center in San Diego County, California. Micro-geographic studies focus on the details of groups' lived spatial experience, the daily spaces in which most personal and group interactions take place, or what Percy-Smith and Well (2000) call 'encounter spaces.' Power relations between people within such encounter spaces create 'microcultures,' understood as "flows of meaning which are managed by small groups of people that meet on an everyday basis" (Wulff 1995, p. 65). The small groups of people who must manage flows of meaning around day labor sites are stakeholders in each locational conflict.