The Manufacturing of Job Displacement: How Racial Capitalism Drives Immigrant and Gender Inequality in the Labor Market

The employer-driven push to systematically replace Black workers with unauthorized immigrants is uncovered in Laura López-Sanders' book "The Manufacturing of Job Displacement," which reveals illegal practices and behaviors that lead to racial inequality in the labor market. She argues against the predominant view that worker displacement occurs primarily because of hiring biases or social networks and shows that employers strategically intervene to shift the race and gender in an organization.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 05 January 2024
Publisher: New York University Press

In her book, The Manufacturing of Job Displacement, Laura López-Sanders makes a compelling argument that the walls of American businesses conceal a system of illegal practices and behaviors that perpetuate racial inequality in the labor market. Through extensive research conducted in South Carolina manufacturing facilities, nearly 300 interviews, and her own firsthand experience working at both the "bottom" of the labor market, such as cleaning toilets and performing assembly-line jobs, as well as in mid-level supervisory positions, López-Sanders provides a behind-the-scenes account of daily factory life. She uncovers preferential hiring practices that directly contravene civil rights legislation, which prohibits employment discrimination, including orchestrated efforts by employers to systematically replace Black workers with Hispanic unauthorized immigrants.

López-Sanders challenges the prevailing notion that worker displacement is primarily driven by hiring biases or social networks. Instead, she demonstrates that employers strategically intervene, relying on subcontractors, agencies, and intermediaries to alter the race and gender composition of their organizations. They also exploit vulnerable and tractable immigrant labor to impose and defend untenable standards that force native-born workers out of their jobs and create vacancies that can be filled by additional immigrant workers.

The Manufacturing of Job Displacement offers a fresh perspective on a longstanding question about ethnic succession and segmentation in the labor market, and it reorients the ongoing discussions about the economic consequences of immigration. By shedding light on these illegal practices and behaviors, López-Sanders contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by workers of color in the American workforce and the urgent need for reform.

Weight: 484g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479822997