"BETWEEN SCAFFOLDING YOU SEE YOURSELF." MEXICAN MIGRANTS IN THE NORTH CAROLINA CONSTRUCTION SECTOR. AN ETHNOGRAPHIC LOOK

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the operation of outsourcing as a way of work organization updated in the current phase of flexible capital accumulation. We were interested in documenting the outstanding role that outsourcing has played in the recruitment of undocumented migrant workers from rural areas of the center of Mexico, for the subsector of residential construction in the state of North Carolina. We conceive the articulation of irregular-outsourcing migration as an enhancer of job precariousness and class fragmentation. The ethnographic method has guided the research that supports what is stated here. The testimonies used to illustrate these aspects are part of a cumulus of interviews conducted in Pahuatlán, Puebla and in Durham and Orange counties, North Carolina. We consider that the originality of our analysis lies in revealing the material and subjective implications of this renewed way of job organization in the lives of undocumented migrant workers.

Keywords

• flexible accumulation
• outsourcing
• irregular migrant workers
• job precariousness
• class fragmentetion