Exploring Latina/Latino Migrants' Adaptation to the Economic Crisis in the US Heartland: A Capability Approach

Abstract

This paper employs the capability approach to explore how Latina/Latino migrants in Central Illinois—an area of the Midwest (or Heartland) that lies outside the traditional metropolitan destinations—were coping with the local effects of the global economic crisis of the late 2000s. The crisis affected the capabilities of Latina/Latino migrants to pursue work that provided sufficient income to meet their families' basic needs. Exacerbating the crisis were high prices for food that persisted in the wake of the food price crisis of 2007/08 and further limited purchasing power. Using a case study, we focus on the migrants' capabilities to have control over their environment through employment and entrepreneurship, as well as agency in use of their income (such as sending remittances), which affects the capabilities of affiliation, respect, and emotions. In the 20 in-depth interviews with migrant women and men, we find that most interviewees reported their hours and pay had been cut. Strategies included cutting back on remittances, turning to self-employment, and some new use of support programs. The strategies had different gender dimensions with implications for capabilities that often made them more challenging for male migrants than female migrants.

Keywords:

• Migration
• Remittances
• Crisis
• Capability approach

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture, under Project No. ILLU-793-311. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture.

Notes

The Census Bureau does not provide three-year American Community Survey estimates for the time period before 2005 because the study county was not covered in the survey. The latest comparable data collected before the crisis come from the 2000 Census.

This section focuses on the demand side of housing rather than the supply side. Migrants working in housing construction disproportionately lost jobs in the USA overall (see Martin, 2009).

On the housing supply side, many Latino workers have been laid off from construction jobs across the USA (Martin, 2009; Ruiz and Vargas-Silva, 2009).

In an earlier study, only one respondent owned a house; the respondents were more likely to rent an apartment or purchase a trailer in a well-established local trailer park that offers many amenities to migrants (Arends-Kuenning et al., 2008). Because this pattern still holds in the area, the respondents in this round of interviews did not experience strong direct effects of the decline in the housing market. According to a worker at a local NGO that assists migrants, the number of families residing in Latino-populated areas in the city had remained stable.

For example, if a non-traditional location was dominated by work at a single factory (common in meat processing areas) and if the factory closed or laid off many workers during the recession, the context would not be supportive. Not unexpectedly, a more diversified economy appears to offer more protection of capabilities in a downturn. Studies have shown divergent outcomes in different settings and different countries. Danzer and Ivaschenko (2010) document increasing migration from Tajikistan to Moscow during the crisis.

The earlier study provided us a base for better understanding the changes reported by migrants in the area in 2010.

Five of the women who were interviewed worked in restaurants as waitresses or in the kitchen, one worked in healthcare and one in quality control at a factory; the other three were self-employed. Of the men, four worked as machine operators in a factory, two as janitors, two as mechanics, one was a cook and one worked as kitchen help.

This was similar to Arends-Kuenning et al. (2008), in which 82% of men said they sent money back compared with 71% of the women respondents. Hometown clubs, in which groups of migrants send remittances to their communities in the country of origin/Mexico (usually for specific projects), operate in the Chicago area; however, none of the respondents had heard of any in this area.

Reported earnings ranged from $1200 to $2800 per month ($300–700 per week), although most fell at the lower end of this range. The self-employed women reported earnings toward the high end, which were much higher than the self-employed man, but these differences were mainly based on the women working longer hours.

When filing papers seeking permanent residency, the applicant and her/his sponsor promise that the applicant will not apply for government assistance in the first five years of holding permanent residency. The sponsor makes a commitment to look out for the well-being of the applicant during those five years. If a permanent resident applies for benefits such as the TANF and receives the benefit, the sponsor will, most probably, be billed for the amount disbursed by the government.

Ideally, we would examine the trend in SNAP cases that occurred in the three years prior to the crisis to strengthen the argument that the global economic crisis caused Latinas/Latinos to apply for SNAP at a higher rate than previously.

Assuming that the percentage of individuals is about the same as the percentage of households.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paola León-Ross

Paola León-Ross is a Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA

Gale Summerfield

Gale Summerfield is Associate Professor and Director in Women and Gender in Global Perspectives and Human and Community Development, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA

Mary Arends-Kuenning

Mary Arends-Kuenning is Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA