David Shipler’s the Working Poor, Research Paper Example

The Currency of Illegal Immigrants to the U.S. Economy 

The phrase “the working poor” lacks currency in current political discourses because it undermines the very image of America that has been constructed as the land of opportunity within the purview of American exceptionalism. The phrase is somewhat unsettling and uncomfortable, despite the fact that 35 million Americans live in poverty, the majority of whom have subaltern status as this population is concentrated with African Americans and single white women. Poverty emanates from an amalgam of factors that manifest in the image everyone has of the impoverished. Shipler states, however, that “for practically every family, then, the ingredients of poverty are part financial and part psychological, part personal and part societal, part past and part present” (Shipley 11). These ingredients all constitute a life of poverty that germinates as a result of systemic flaws and the myth of the American Dream. Shipler defines poverty as such: “ . . . Poverty is not a category that can be delineated merely by the government’s dollar limits on annual income. In real life, it is an unmarked area along a continuum, a broader region of hardship that the society usually recognizes. . .” (Shipler x). Shipley deftly explores the status of illegal immigrants and the role they continue to play in the American economy despite being stigmatized and constructed as nefarious aliens who threaten the fundamental character of the American nation. Shipler cogently elucidates  that illegal immigrants, especially those who earn under the minimum wage, are the motor of the American economy and allow American citizens to live comfortably. Ironically, although immigrants come to America in search of a better life, the structural and institutional infrastructure of the American economy renders it impossible for them to succeed while their labor allows others to reap the fruit of their labor. Structural conditions created by immigration policy undergirds why some labor in the United States is valued while other forms of labor, such as the labor conducted by illegal immigrants, is  devalued.

Shipler broaches the topic of illegal immigration using the premise that the United States imports labor from the Third World in order to legally sanction an exploited workforce with impunity.  He combines economic insight, statistical data, policy analysis, and individuals who frequently interact with the working poor with  interviews of impoverished workers in order to provide a nuanced account of the lived experience of illegal immigrants laboring in squalid conditions ranging from sweatshops to the fields, and how their experiences psychologically impacted their lives and experiences both at home and in the workplace (The Red Phoenix).  Underpaid migratory workers enabled the U.S. capitalistic economy yield higher profits because, Shipler points out, they are paid extremely low wages and live in squalid and deplorable housing. Indeed, American capitalism is a profit-based system rather than a moral one, and it can almost be compared to a system of slavery in which exploited labor was necessary for the American economy to thrive. The majority of migratory workers are illegally working in the United States, so they cannot demand more than minimum wage because their employers tell them that they are lucky to be earning any wages at all. Such exploitation undergirds the capitalistic mechanisms in the American economy that has been in place for centuries. It is difficult to unionize migratory workers because many of them do not speak English and they do not understand the concept of unionizing is and its potential benefits for the workers. Moreover, illegal migrants working in the United States have no agency and do not want to risk getting deported back. For some migrant workers, however, unionizing is desirable because it ensures that reliable and hard-working employees get compensated.

While Shipler elucidates the economic currency of undocumented workers as a result of their illegal status–which is highlighted in the name of chapter 4 as the “Harvest of Shame”–he also acknowledges that not all employers treated undocumented workers in such deplorable fashion. Indeed, undocumented workers working in the fields are exposed to hazardous herbicides and pesticides, and they do not benefit from labor laws because the government at the micro and macro levels does little to enforce them. Because of the transient nature of their work, they become almost nomadic, rendering it difficult for undocumented workers to raise families. Their progeny lack the ability to receive an education because of lack of economic clout and agency they enjoy. Their status as “undocumented” becomes conflated with the construction of “illegal.” Their status is a liminal one because they belong neither to the United States–which renders them illegal and views them as menacing despite their economic currency–nor their mother countries–especially, Shipler points out, from Mexico and Central America–which they have left in search of a better life through economic opportunity in a country that denigrates them.

Shipler’s underlying mission is to engage readers beyond merely appraising the causes and effects of poverty in order to procure a greater and deeper understanding of the working poor and the myriad of obstacles they face on a quotidian basis.  The intersectionality of class and race has created structural and institutional inequalities for immigrants, especially those who are in the United States illegally in search of a better life through economic opportunity afforded them here.  Employers of illegal immigrants often pay them under the minimum wage in order to yield higher profit. These workers retain economic currency because they represent a cheap source of labor in the same way that slaves were exploited as free labor in order to gain profits. Indeed, capitalism is profit-driven economic structure at its core and not a moral one. Shipley convincingly presents data that discursively frames illegal citizens as the backbone and fulcrum of American capitalism, thereby  deconstructing the image of them as hordes or pests trying to take over America by dismantling a system characterized by white hegemony.

Works Cited

Ford, Janet. “Review of The Working Poor: Invisible in America.” College of Business. N.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. https://www.wcu.edu/20050523.pdf

Ngai, Mae. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. Print.

The Red Phoenix. “Review of The Working Poor: Invisible in America.” The Red Phoenix. 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. http://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/30/review-of-the- working-poor-invisible-in-america/

Shipler, David. The Working Poor: Invisible in America. United States: Vintage Books, 2005.   Print.