The Gaze of Surveillance in the Lives of Mexican Immigrant Workers
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Local/Global Encounters
The Gaze of Surveillance in the Lives of Mexican Immigrant Workers
LYNN STEPHEN
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the embodied experiences and memories of Mexican immigrant agricultural workers as objects of surveillance on the US–Mexican border, the agricultural fields and labour camps of Oregon, and in processing plants. Key to understanding these experiences and memories is the floating nature of the border as the legality of border crossers is continually contested through the way they are structurally inserted into the transnational power relations of development and commercial agriculture and culturally interpreted as ‘illegal’. KEYWORDS United States; Mexico; farmworkers; immigrant workers; border controls
Introduction Commercial agriculture in the Pacific Northwest is profoundly dependent on Mexican immigrants. Oregon has more than 100 000 farmworkers, 98 per cent of whom are Latino, primarily of Mexican origin. The most recent immigrant farmworkers are indigenous from the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero (see Stephen, 2001). Many of these farmworkers live permanently in the state. Others work there temporarily and move on to other areas of the US and Canada as well. The newest arrivals often live in spartan conditions at best and squalid conditions at worst in labour camps. As liberalization of trade, through agreements such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and others has increased competition and pushed down the prices of many commodities such as fruits, berries, and vegetables, Oregon fruit and vegetable-processing plants have cut back on the amount of crops they purchase from growers, or have even failed to pay growers for what they already purchased. In turn, growers cut back on planting and pressure middlemen such as labour contractors and field supervisors (mayordomos) to get more out of their workers and to hire fewer people. Mexican workers at the bottom of the global economic hierarchy must absorb a significant part of the fallout of globalization. They remain largely invisible to US consumers who eat the food they grow, harvest, and process. We now face a dilemma.While many are calling for stricter border controls and more stringent immigration legislation to prevent the entrance of ‘terrorists’ to the United States, we have a food economy that is highly dependent on recent immigrant labour^ Development (2004) 47(1), 97–102. doi:10.1057/palgrave.dev.1100003
Development 47(1): Local/Global Encounters much of it Mexican and much of it undocumented. While many now fear an increase in surveillance and a loss of personal liberties, undocumented workers and others who are read as undocumented in the US have been living in the world of surveillance and limited personal liberties for quite some time. Scholars such as Alejandro Lugo (2000) and Renato Rosaldo (1997) have questioned overly optimistic readings of the border that leave behind the militarized, policing, segregation, and surveillance aspects of border life for working men and women.While the border is perha
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