Hi, My name is Jackson Porterfield, and I’ll be sharing my research proposal from Geography 315. For this course, I chose to study the geographies of undocumented immigrants in the United States, and here is my proposal: Measuring the Mobility of Undocumented United States Immigrants.
So, as I looked at the existing body of knowledge on the geography of immigrants and immigrant mobility, much of the literature focused on the concept of “illegality,” the sense of vulnerability experienced by undocumented immigrants that is legally produced and upheld. And so legal geography scholars argue that spaces can not be separated from the legal context in which they exist, and they agree that undocumented immigrants are acutely aware of their “illegality” in their everyday life and in all types of spaces.
So as this suggests, this vulnerability does permeate everyday life, and is particularly influential in certain situations like driving a car on the road, attending school, or going to work. So, a lot of this research situates the mobility of immigrants as a product of their relationship with the employer, and with work.
In 2006, local branches of Unite Here hospitality worker union in Los Angeles and Chicago were able to negotiate provisions for undocumented workers, and these provisions protect workers from being investigated after hiring, and from immigration enforcement at the workplace. This has not become a standard for other unions, and so the LA and Chicago branches of Unite Here remain the largest local unions protecting undocumented workers.
Workers also experience significant variation in how they interact with the workplace. Some employers are able to provide shelter or company-owned vehicles, and other employers might have different types of worksites, like moving or really remote worksites. So obviously employers certainly have the potential to impact mobility and freedom of movement for these workers.
So, as we combine how “illegality” and work affect mobility, I was led to my research question: What factors limit the everyday mobility of undocumented immigrants? And so with this research question in mind, we first consider how mobility can be measured, and what factors and behaviors might impact mobility.
Moving to my proposed methodology: I proposed a mixed-methods approach, combining survey and ethnographic research. Ideally, this project would have a vast geographic range, and it could get collaboration from all different sizes of communities in every region of the United States. But for the feasibility of this class and this project, I chose to center it in Los Angeles as that’s where the largest branch of Unite Here is that’s providing immigrant protection provisions. I thought it would be particularly valuable to choose a place that does have a large Unite Here union as it would be interesting to see how members of this union might differ from others.
For the survey portion of the research, survey questions would attempt to quantify mobility, and explore the many factors that could shape mobility, such as living arrangements, vehicle ownership, worksite type and location, and union membership, and specifically does that union offer immigration protection. Most of these survey questions are closed-ended, and they’re meant to establish a profile of mobility measures and factors that might be contributing to these measures. While it’s valuable to create these profiles, it’s also vital that the voices and perspective of these people are taken into account, so I also wanted to include an ethnographic research portion.
Through interviews, we could collect invaluable qualitative data and uncover some relationships that aren’t evident from the survey responses, just by getting those insider voices. We could compare the results of both methods and identify what factors are most prominent, what stands out, how they differ. The results could prompt further research at different scales on the mobility of immigrants. More immediately than further research, the results also might help us theorize about what practical and realistic steps could be taken to minimize the limitations that these undocumented immigrants are facing every day.
For example, if some factor was found to severely hinder mobility, actions could be taken to eliminate that factor. Conversely, if some factor granted a great freedom of movement, groups could advocate for its expansion. And so the results do have a great deal of potential for action, whether that be change written into policy or union contracts. So that, in my opinion, makes it a very valuable study and contribution to the field.
Finally, I’d like to give an acknowledgement to Sam Kay and Jie Deng for their guidance on this proposal. Here are my citations. Thank you for watching.