Building Job Quality from the inside-out: Mexican Immigrants, Skills, and Jobs in the Construction Industry

Abstract

Using an ethnographic case study of Mexican immigrant construction workers in two U.S. cities and in Mexico, the authors illustrate the contribution of immigrant skill as a resource for changing workplace practices. As a complement to explanations that situate the protection of job quality and the defense of skill to external institutions, the authors show that immigrants use collective learning practices to improve job quality from inside the work environment-that is to say from the inside-out. The authors also find that immigrants use collective skill-building practices to negotiate for improvements to their jobs; however, their ability to do so depends on the institutions that organize production locally. Particular attention is given to the quality of those industry institutions, noting that where they are more malleable, immigrant workers gain more latitude to alter their working conditions and their prospects for advancement.

By the numbers: the construction industry in Canada from 1986 to 2016

“…In academic literature, Iskander and Lowe (2013) add to these findings, showing that ethnic networks are often effective recruitment pathways, and that certain segments of the construction industry are now dominated by a single ethnic group. Although these jobs are often at the lower end of the skill spectrum, this is not always the case.…”

“…Others argue that instead of overall deskilling in the industry, there has instead been bifurcation, where high-skill, well-paying jobs remain, accompanied by a proliferation of low-skilled work. Within this bifurcated industry, the good jobs are often held by members of the mainstream population, and the lower-skilled jobs are often taken by minorities (Iskander & Lowe 2013).…”

Power Through Problem Solving: Latino Immigrants and the Inconsistencies of Economic Restructuring

“…Recent scholarship on immigration has turned an eye towards internal sources of worker bargaining power through which immigrant workers resist exploitative and demeaning working conditions (Zlolniski, ; Gordon, ; Milkman, ; Iskander & Lowe, ). This represents a return to earlier studies of labour processes internal to the workplace that have helped advance job quality and working conditions for low‐wage workers, including Latino immigrants (Burawoy, ; Osterman, ).…”

Rebuilding the House of Labor: Unions and Worker Centers in the Residential Construction Industry

“…This is crucial because in an industry like construction with volatile production schedules and unstable employment, skill is a primary source of competitive advantage and bargaining power. Iskander and Lowe's () insightful research on “tacit” skills development among migrants from Mexico who work in the residential construction industry shows that workers possess robust skill sets that span craft boundaries—even if these are not explicitly acknowledged by their employers, and thus poorly remunerated. Employers in regions with low union density are especially reliant on immigrant workers' tacit skill sets since, in the absence of union training programs, new labor market entrants have few avenues for acquiring trade‐specific skills.…”

“…To overcome these challenges, skills “are generally viewed on work teams as a shared resource … immigrants [make] it difficult for employers to isolate any given worker in the team as the driver of innovation or quality… . By pushing for collective pay increases, they safeguard the cohesion of their work group from employer attempts to create divisions by paying workers differently” (Iskander and Lowe , 798, 799). In short, contrary to the widely held perception that migrant workers passively accept degraded labor standards, as well as the erroneous argument that they are drivers of declining standards in the construction industry, Iskander and Lowe reveal an important, if heretofore unacknowledged, strategy among workers to raise wages in the context of weak institutional supports.…”