Mexican migrant workers and workplace communication: the influence of informal labor on English language usage, literacy, and perceptions of ‘the American Dream’

Abstract

This article describes the findings of an exploratory field study of Mexican migrant workers and the daily realities they experience when it comes to communicating for work in the United States, mainly in informal sectors of the economy. In unstructured interviews or ‘conversations,’ migrants share narratives about the type of communication they do at work, communication challenges, what they perceive as strengths and weaknesses/easy or difficult communication, and what profession they held when in Mexico. In addition, they provide insight into their feelings about the current state of the immigration in the United States, how much they know about the immigration debates, and how this might impact how they communicate at work. The article features migrant narratives, social-political-economic implications, and implications for continued research possibilities in this area, which is largely unexplored by communication research.

Keywords:

• migrant communication
• fringe communication
• Mexican migrants in informal labor
• migrant labor and communication
• immigration and migrant communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Lorelei Ortiz is Professor of Business Communication in the Munday School of Business where she teaches Business Communication, Business and Professional Speaking, International Business Communication, Managerial Communication, and Persuasion/Negotiation. She is also Business Communication Area Coordinator and faculty adviser for the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting. She has published in the Journal of Business Communication, Business Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication Management, and Journal of Writing and Technical Communication and in 2011 authored the textbook, A Practical Course in Business Communication. She has taught Business Communication abroad, at Universite Catholique d’el Ouest and regularly serves nonprofits in her community including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas and Workers Defense Project. Ortiz has an MA in Professional Writing and Rhetoric from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from New Mexico State University.