Beyond Occupational Hazards: Abuse of Day Laborers and Health
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Beyond Occupational Hazards: Abuse of Day Laborers and Health Alein Y. Haro1 · Randall Kuhn2 · Michael A. Rodriguez3 · Nik Theodore4 · Edwin Melendez5 · Abel Valenzuela Jr.6 Accepted: 21 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract With the increase in labor market flexibility and worksite immigration enforcement, day labor is a common type of informal employment arrangement among immigrants. Our study contextualized day laborers’ physical and mental health within workand community-level factors. We use a nationally representative sample of 2015 day laborers from the National Day Labor Survey. Multivariable logistic regression models estimated the association of occupational and socioenvironmental abuses with self-rated health (SRH), a positive PHQ-2 screening, morbidities, and workplace injuries. Employer abuse was associated with fair/poor SRH, workplace injuries, morbidity, and PHQ-2; business owner abuse was associated with PHQ-2 and workplace injuries; and crime and having a dangerous job are both associated with workplace injuries. Health disadvantages stem from unsafe occupational conditions and an overlapping array of adverse social experiences. These findings highlight the need to develop and evaluate policies that protect all workers regardless of socioeconomic position and immigration status. Keywords Day laborers · Immigrant health · Mental health · Latino workers
Background Work plays a central role in immigrants’ experiences and their health [1]. Globally, a vast portion of the immigrant workforce performs the “3D” jobs: dirty, dangerous, and difficult [2]. In the United States (U.S.), immigrants are overrepresented in the low skilled, informal, and unregulated sectors of the economy and are more likely to work in hazardous industries [3]. Groups with less power, including immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with lower socioeconomic position, also experience greater * Alein Y. Haro [email protected] 1
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
2
Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
3
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
4
Center for Urban Economic Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
5
Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
6
Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
exposure to job insecurity [4] and occupational hazards [5], which lead to adverse health outcomes [6]. With the increase in labor market flexibility and simultaneous escalation in worksite immigration enforcement, day labor is a common type of informal employment arrangement among the immigrant population [7]. Day laborers, who are primarily undocumented men from Latin America [8], are a “structurally vulnerable population” due
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