Mented Latino migrants, it is worthwhile examining what they contend with in a liberal setting. Discrimination is a daily challenge for Latino day laborers. These experiences can be subtle, slight, barely discernible, and other times readily apparent. Experiences of discrimination draw attention to the body and mark the consciousness of the undocumented. This essay presents a multi-level analysis of discrimination aimed at Latino day laborers, including their responses and analyses, based on an ongoing social ecological study of the living and working conditions of day laborers in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. After describing our methods, we briefly examine discrimination, the capacities of undocumented Latino day laborers to negotiate it, and lived experiences of discrimination in two California cities. For heuristic reasons, we discuss discrimination as it is produced in global, national/ state and local contexts, but with an understanding that these levels intersect, permitting various forms of discrimination to be simultaneously experienced and embodied.Dihexa site NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptCity Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.PageMethodsThis article builds from an ongoing mixed method study that seeks to describe and explain socio-cultural factors and forces that place Latino migrant day laborers at risk for alcohol use, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and related health problems (see Organista et. al. 2012). This U.S. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funded study aims to identify relations between social, structural, and environmental factors and forces (e.g., urban, living, working conditions, legal status) and individual factors (i.e., use of alcohol, social embeddedness, psychological distress) in relation to sexual and general health outcomes.3 This article is based on the qualitative medical anthropological portion of the study, which involves ethnographically describing the broader context and multitude of social structural factors Latino (documented and undocumented) day laborers contend with in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. Data were collected between 2010 and 2012, and represents a sample of 51 Latino migrant day laborers who were contacted through an opportunistic recruitment approach, and participated in lengthy open ended interviews. The interviews were designed to maximize gathering the “emic” perspective (Harris 1976)–insider point of view– of Latino day laborer life worlds. With informed consent, interviews were digitally tape-recorded, transcribed, translated, coded and stored onto a secure computer database. A qualitative software program, Atlas TI, is used to store and organize the body of data accessible for systematic data analysis. A definitive definition of day labor is problematic for numerous SKF-96365 (hydrochloride) side effects reasons (Valenzuela et al. 2006). For the purpose of our study we deployed a definition of day laborer as someone who has worked three or more jobs within a six month period, with no one job lasting more than two months. The study also deployed a quasi-community based participatory research approach (Minkler and Wallerstein 2008), in which researchers partnered with three nonprofit agencies that work with Latino day laborers. These agencies, two in San Francisco and one in Berkeley, each provide a different mix of social services including advocacy, work opportunities, general he.Mented Latino migrants, it is worthwhile examining what they contend with in a liberal setting. Discrimination is a daily challenge for Latino day laborers. These experiences can be subtle, slight, barely discernible, and other times readily apparent. Experiences of discrimination draw attention to the body and mark the consciousness of the undocumented. This essay presents a multi-level analysis of discrimination aimed at Latino day laborers, including their responses and analyses, based on an ongoing social ecological study of the living and working conditions of day laborers in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. After describing our methods, we briefly examine discrimination, the capacities of undocumented Latino day laborers to negotiate it, and lived experiences of discrimination in two California cities. For heuristic reasons, we discuss discrimination as it is produced in global, national/ state and local contexts, but with an understanding that these levels intersect, permitting various forms of discrimination to be simultaneously experienced and embodied.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptCity Soc (Wash). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 April 01.Quesada et al.PageMethodsThis article builds from an ongoing mixed method study that seeks to describe and explain socio-cultural factors and forces that place Latino migrant day laborers at risk for alcohol use, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and related health problems (see Organista et. al. 2012). This U.S. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funded study aims to identify relations between social, structural, and environmental factors and forces (e.g., urban, living, working conditions, legal status) and individual factors (i.e., use of alcohol, social embeddedness, psychological distress) in relation to sexual and general health outcomes.3 This article is based on the qualitative medical anthropological portion of the study, which involves ethnographically describing the broader context and multitude of social structural factors Latino (documented and undocumented) day laborers contend with in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. Data were collected between 2010 and 2012, and represents a sample of 51 Latino migrant day laborers who were contacted through an opportunistic recruitment approach, and participated in lengthy open ended interviews. The interviews were designed to maximize gathering the “emic” perspective (Harris 1976)–insider point of view– of Latino day laborer life worlds. With informed consent, interviews were digitally tape-recorded, transcribed, translated, coded and stored onto a secure computer database. A qualitative software program, Atlas TI, is used to store and organize the body of data accessible for systematic data analysis. A definitive definition of day labor is problematic for numerous reasons (Valenzuela et al. 2006). For the purpose of our study we deployed a definition of day laborer as someone who has worked three or more jobs within a six month period, with no one job lasting more than two months. The study also deployed a quasi-community based participatory research approach (Minkler and Wallerstein 2008), in which researchers partnered with three nonprofit agencies that work with Latino day laborers. These agencies, two in San Francisco and one in Berkeley, each provide a different mix of social services including advocacy, work opportunities, general he.
