The Mobility of Workers Under Advanced Capitalism: Dominican Migration to the United States / Edition 1

by Ramona Hernández

Overview

What explains the international mobility of workers from developing to advanced societies? Why do workers move from one region to another? Theoretically, the supply of workers in a given region and the demand for them in another account for the international mobility of laborers. Job seekers from less developed regions migrate to more advanced countries where technological and productive transformations have produced a shortage of laborers. Using the Dominican labor force in New York as a case study, Ramona Hernández challenges this presumption of a straightforward relationship between supply and demand in the job markets of the receiving society. She contends that the traditional correlation between migration and economic progress does not always hold true. Once transplanted in New York City, Hernández shows, Dominicans have faced economic hardship as the result of high levels of unemployment and underemployment and the reality of a changing labor market that increasingly requires workers with skills and training they do not have. Rather than responding to a demand in the labor market, emigration from the Dominican Republic was the result of a de facto government policy encouraging poor and jobless people to leave—a policy in which the United States was an accomplice because the policy suited its economic and political interests in the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231116237
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ramona Hernández is the director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute. She is the author of The Dominican Americans.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Leaving the Land of the Few
1. The Great Exodus: Its Roots
2. Economic Growth and Surplus Population
Part 2. Settling in the Land of Dreams
3. The Perception of a Migratory Movement
4. Dominicans in the Labor Market
5. On the International Mobility of Labor
6. Conclusion: Assessing the Present and Auguring the Future
Appendix: Figures
Notes
Works Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

Michael Laguerre

In this interesting and fascinating sociological study, Ramona Hernández documents and examines in depth the labyrinthine social contours of Dominican immigration into the United States. This is the most challenging, thoughtful, and insightful explanation I have encountered so far in the literature on international migrations.

— Michael Laguerre, professor and director of the Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology, University of California at Berkeley

Frank Bonilla

Hernández captures in rich detail the fluid dynamic driving the exodus from the countryside to island urban centers and then on to New York of Dominicans trapped between despair and cynicism in a system without the means or the commitment to accommodate substantial sectors of the available work force.

— Frank Bonilla, Thomas Hunter Professor of Sociology Emeritus, at Hunter College of CUNY

James Jennings

Hernandez approaches the historical and contemporary migration of Dominicans to New York City as a case study for examination of emerging relationships between international developments and local politics. She utilizes a keen understanding of politics in the Dominican Republic and the United States to show how the two spheres are impacted by Dominican migration. Her work has important theoretical and policy implications for understanding unfolding local developments related to globalization. This is a timely and significant work.

— James Jennings, Tufts University

Editorial Reviews

Hernandez analyzes the data that document the reality that inspiredNueba Yol, arguing that many Dominicans know the harsh facts but come [to New York] anyway. Her book convincingly describes a troubling new scenario and gives a much-needed reality check.

Journal of American Ethnic History - Michele Wucker

The Strength of Hernández' book lies in her showing, on the one hand, the structural character of migration and, on the other, the fact that migration is not necessarily functional to the needs of the global economy.

Centro Journal - Jose Itzigsohn

Hernandez provides a succinct and interesting overview of how the geopolitics of the Dominican Republic encouraged emigration.

Latin American Research Review - Gareth A. Jones

Hernandez succeeds in bringing to the reader's attention some of the very troubling dimensions of Dominican settlement and incorporation in New York City. This work provides a strong foundation for future research on Dominican immigration.

Greta Gilbertsonn Journal of Sociology

A superb economic history... useful... excellent... highly recommended.

Choice

Hernandez's book is very well documented and returns to a range of structural factors that affect international migration but are commonly ignored in recent studies...This book is an important contribution to the literature on migration.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies - Estela Rivero-Fuentes

The Strength of Hernández' book lies in her showing, on the one hand, the structural character of migration and, on the other, the fact that migration is not necessarily functional to the needs of the global economy.

— Jose Itzigsohn

Centro Journal

With the utmost civility, this volume takes to task truisms concerning immigration theory and Dominicans' purported middle-class status, entrepreneurial bent, and prosperity.

— Glenn Jacobs

Latino Studies

Hernandez's book is very well documented and returns to a range of structural factors that affect international migration but are commonly ignored in recent studies...This book is an important contribution to the literature on migration.

— Estela Rivero-Fuentes

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Hernandez provides a succinct and interesting overview of how the geopolitics of the Dominican Republic encouraged emigration.

— Gareth A. Jones

Latin American Research Review

Hernandez analyzes the data that document the reality that inspired Nueba Yol, arguing that many Dominicans know the harsh facts but come [to New York] anyway. Her book convincingly describes a troubling new scenario and gives a much-needed reality check.

— Michele Wucker

Journal of American Ethnic History

Hernandez succeeds in bringing to the reader's attention some of the very troubling dimensions of Dominican settlement and incorporation in New York City. This work provides a strong foundation for future research on Dominican immigration.

— Greta Gilbertson

American Journal of Sociology

With the utmost civility, this volume takes to task truisms concerning immigration theory and Dominicans' purported middle-class status, entrepreneurial bent, and prosperity.

Latino Studies - Glenn Jacobs

Hernandez succeeds in bringing to the reader's attention some of the very troubling dimensions of Dominican settlement and incorporation in New York City. This work provides a strong foundation for future research on Dominican immigration.

American Journal of Sociology - Greta Gilbertson