Trade in Migrant Labor: Inter-Organizational Ties and Employer Recruitment During an Economic Downturn

ABSTRACT: To explain the pattern of labor migration to western nations research has examined supply side factors of migrant characteristics, their familial networks, and wage differentials of sending countries, these studies of immigration focus on periods of economic growth. However, my multi-site ethnography consisting of 97 interviews with U.S. guest workers, oil industry employers, and Indian labor brokers reveals that employer sponsored labor migration to the United States continues during the economic downturn. The study evaluates sponsorship of foreign workers in a period of high domestic unemployment to address the question: why does recruitment of low wage foreign labor continue during periods of economic stasis? Findings indicate industry-driven migration as the primary source of facilitating migrant entry into the U.S. labor market, in which the business interests of U.S. employers, in soliciting highly skilled, yet low-wage, manageable foreign workers, and migration industry service providers, in expanding market share by catering to employer demand, coalesce to establish business networks that reduce the costs of labor recruitment; in doing so these migratory circuits sustain transnational migration. Introducing the new empirical mechanism of industry-driven migration builds upon existing theories by highlighting the role of formal business ties in perpetuating migrant entry into western labor markets, particularly during economic downturns.