In this chapter there are three parts: (1) the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act legislation discussed in terms of its implementation for access to residency among Thai migrant workers; (2) the examination of the contract as a guide for a moral compass to determine deserving victim; and (3) the connections between contracts of debt and transnational labor. The Deserving Thai Noncitizen Immigrant Worker is about how the state barters the right of stay as the first step toward permanent residency through a series of requirements including testimony when trafficking victim, and demonstrations of moral character and productivity as a worker with future employability. The chapter is a case study that examines the Global Horizons farm workers’ case (2003–2007), which involved 200 workers from Thailand. The legal struggle led to a 2009 Department of Justice indictment for trafficking and civil labor discrimination violations and is the single largest anti-trafficking indictment in the United States to date. Global Horizons was a labor subcontracting company specializing in agricultural workers to the United States and Canada, and is based in Los Angeles, CA. The case demonstrates the complexity of the global displacement of labor value with money and debt. People are stuck in between non-citizenship and the transnational worker. The legal discourse of trafficking, labor rights, and invisibility of race is very present. The evidence is from ethnography and interviews conducted with workers and their families involved in the Global Horizons’ case and others in Thailand, Hawaii, Utah, and Los Angeles.

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Legal Precarity: Undeserving Victims in the United States

  • Sudarat Musikawong

摘要

In this chapter there are three parts: (1) the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act legislation discussed in terms of its implementation for access to residency among Thai migrant workers; (2) the examination of the contract as a guide for a moral compass to determine deserving victim; and (3) the connections between contracts of debt and transnational labor. The Deserving Thai Noncitizen Immigrant Worker is about how the state barters the right of stay as the first step toward permanent residency through a series of requirements including testimony when trafficking victim, and demonstrations of moral character and productivity as a worker with future employability. The chapter is a case study that examines the Global Horizons farm workers’ case (2003–2007), which involved 200 workers from Thailand. The legal struggle led to a 2009 Department of Justice indictment for trafficking and civil labor discrimination violations and is the single largest anti-trafficking indictment in the United States to date. Global Horizons was a labor subcontracting company specializing in agricultural workers to the United States and Canada, and is based in Los Angeles, CA. The case demonstrates the complexity of the global displacement of labor value with money and debt. People are stuck in between non-citizenship and the transnational worker. The legal discourse of trafficking, labor rights, and invisibility of race is very present. The evidence is from ethnography and interviews conducted with workers and their families involved in the Global Horizons’ case and others in Thailand, Hawaii, Utah, and Los Angeles.