Temporary Immigration Status, Race, and Workplace Precarity
Co-funded with the Carnegie Corporation
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) provides temporary relief from deportation for immigrants from countries that experience severe environmental problems, wars or other “extraordinary conditions.” It does not provide individuals with a pathway to legal permanent residence or citizenship. A recent statistical profile of TPS holders highlights their high levels of labor force participation, and their concentration in several low-wage industries. Sociologist Shannon Gleeson and legal scholar Kati Griffith will examine how TPS affects immigrants’ workplace outcomes and intersects with other factors such as race, gender, national origin, and local political context. They will evaluate the experiences of Haitian and Central American workers with TPS to study the extent to which this temporary relief affects a migrant’s ability to find a job and stay employed through regular TPS renewals; the extent to which TPS-holders negotiate workplace conditions such as wages, scheduling, and other “good job” attributes; and the extent to which TPS shapes workers’ ability to mobilize their rights under the law and contest workplace abuses.