Precarity and guest work in U.S. tourism: J-1 and H-2B visa programs

ABSTRACT

Over the past couple decades, hotels and resorts in the United States have come to rely on the influx of foreign guest workers to meet labor demand during peak tourism seasons. In particular, employers leverage two visas programs: J-1 and H-2B. While helping to solve seasonal workforce issues, these programs have come under scrutiny by worker advocacy groups and other stakeholders who have recognized that both programs at times feature unfavorable conditions for workers. This case study focuses on the precarities embedded in the lives of these foreign guest workers when they come to the United States. Particular attention is paid to the ways that policies crafted to facilitate the flexibilities required by employers have a hand in structuring the precarities associated with living and working in the United States. Results show that workers are at times vulnerable to inadequate housing, questionable employment practices, weak program sponsorship, and, in rare cases, human trafficking. Analysis suggests a general spatial unevenness in the ways that workers experience precarities, especially pertaining to the presence of effective community outreach programs aimed at assisting foreign workers. It is argued that the latter are particularly important for ensuring that guest worker programs can achieve the goals laid out by government agencies of providing employment and protection for workers. Research is based primarily on interviews with major stakeholder groups associated with tourism guest work, including guest workers, advocates, and program sponsors. It is suggested that despite recent reforms, more work is needed to ensure that guest workers' experiences in the United States are not fraught with vulnerability.

摘要

近几十年来, 美国的酒店与度假区愈加依赖国外工人的流入, 以满足旺季对劳动力的需求。这些外来工人主要利用J-1 (访问交流者计划) 和 H-2B (临时务工签证) 两种签证项目来美国工作。这些项目尽管有助于解决季节性劳动力短缺问题, 但是它们正受到工人权益团体和其他利益相关者的审查, 因为他们认识到这两个签证项目有时使外来工人处于不利的情形。本个案研究聚焦, 这些工人到美国后他们生活所具有的危险, 特别关注这些适应雇主弹性用工政策对建构外来工人工作与生活不确定性的方式。结果显示, 这些工人有时候很脆弱, 他们面临不充足的住房、有瑕疵的雇工实践、欠佳的项目赞助以及个别情况下的人口贩卖诸多危险。结果表明, 工人体验危险的方式一般来说在空间上是不均衡的, 尤其旨在援助外来工人的有效社区拓展计划提出后, 工人体验危险的方式在空间上是不均衡的。本文认为有效的社区拓展计划对政府机构实现为外来工人提供就业与保护的目的是特别重要的。本研究基于对旅游外来务工人员的利益相关者团体访谈开展, 这些团体包括外来工人、项目推动人员和雇主。本文建议, 尽管外来务工政策有所改革, 但是为了让外来工人在美国少面对脆弱性, 仍有更多的工作要做。

KEYWORDS:

• Labor geographies
• labor migration
• guest workers
• seasonality
• tourism labor
• tourism geographies
• precarity

关键词:

• 劳工地理学
• 劳工迁移
• 外来工人
• 季节性
• 旅游劳工
• 旅游地理
• 危险系数

Acknowledgements

Many thanks are in order to Matthew Wingard, who provided assistance in accessing J-1 spatial data that made the map created for this paper possible. Also a special thank you to Connor Smith who assisted in collecting interviews with several J-1 student workers. Also to Annie and Sylvia, who always help to make research trips fun.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Terry

William Terry is an economic geographer whose reserach predominately focuses on the use of migrant workforces in tourism and hospitality industries.