Migration and identity

WEEK 6: Labour Migration: the US-Mexican Case

2.11.2004

Between Mexico and the USA lies the Rio Grande, a easily-crossed river separating one of the richest from one of the poorest countries in the world. The flow of migrants across the border provides a politically sensitive and excellently documented case of international labour migration. How do we periodise and characterise this migration? What was the border industrialisation program? What was the bracero program?
Acuña, R. Occupied America: The Chicano’s Struggle Toward Liberation (San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1972) E184.M5

Baerresen, D. W. The Border Industrialization Program of Mexico (Lexington Mass: D.C. Heath and Co., 1971)* HV 1663.B2

Bean, F. D. Mexican and Central American Population: and US Immigration Policy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989) HC 2261.M3

Bean, F. D, B. Edmondson and J. S. Passel Undocumented Migration to the United States: IRCA and the Experience of the 1980s (Santa Monica, CA and Washington, DC: Rand Corporation and the Urban Institute, 1990)* HC 2261.U6

Briggs, V. M., W. Fogel and F. H. Smidt The Chicano Worker (University of Texas Press, 1977) HM 1456.1.B7

Brown, P. G. and H. Shue (eds) The Border that Joins: Mexican Migrants and US Responsibility (Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman & Littlefield, 1983) HC2261.B6

Cohen, Robin The New Helots, 43–72

Corwin, A. F. (ed.) Immigrants and Immigrants Perspectives on Mexican Labour Migration to the US (New York: Greenwood Press, 1978) HM1456.I.C6

Cross, H. E. Across the Border: Rural Development in Mexico and Recent Migration to the United States, (Berkeley, University of California, 1981)* HP 6311.C7

Ehrlich, P. R. The Golden Door: International Migration, Mexico and the US (New York: Wideview Books, 1979) HC 2261.E4

Fernandez, R. A. The United States–Mexican Border: A Politico-Economic Profile (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977)* HK 618.F3

Galarza, E. Merchants of Labour: The Mexican-American Story (Charlotte, NC: McNally & Lofting, 1964) HM1456.1.G6

Galarza, E. Mexican-Americans in the South-west Santa Barbara: McNally & Lofting, 1970)* HC2361.G2

Kiser, G. and M. Kiser Mexican Workers in the US: Historical and Political Perspectives (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979) Parts 1, 2 and 4 HM 1456.1.K4

Levy, J. E. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa (New York: W W Norton & co, 1975) HM 9611.85.C4

McWilliams, C. North from Mexico (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968) HC 9761.2

Portes, A. and R. Bach Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985) HC 2261.P6

Power, J. Migrant Workers in Western Europe and the US (Oxford: Pergamon, 1979) HM 1452.P6

Seligson, M. A. Maquiladoras and Migration Workers in the Mexico-United States Border Industrialisation Program (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981)

Sklair, L. et al. Maquiladoras an Annotated Bibliography (San Diego: Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1988)

Sklair, L Assembling for Development: the Maquila Industry in Mexico and the US (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989)*
Self-check: If you were previously unfamilar with this area, you will have acquire a basic working knowledge and will have a knowledge of the periodisation of the flows and the bracero program

WEEK 7: Oscillating Migrants Migrant Labour and the South African Mines

9.11.2004

Two aspects of this topic will be considered. First we will examine the origins and mechanisms of labour recruitment to the mines.Why did the mines need that kind labour? Second, we will look at social control in the mining compounds.
Cohen, R. The New Helots., 82–94, 200–219

Crush, Jonathan et al South Africa’s Labor Empire: A History of Black Migrancy to the Gold Mines (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991)*HM1456.C7

Gordon, R. J. Mines, Masters and Migrants (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1977) HM 563.1.G6

James, W. ‘Class Conflict, Mine Hostels and the Reproduction of a Labour Force’, in R. Cohen et al. Repression and Resistance: Insider Accounts of Apartheid (London: Hans Zell, 1990) 142–64* DT 763.R3

James, W. Our Precious Metal: African Workers in South Africa’s Gold-mining Industry, 1970–90 London: James Currey, 1992) HM 9563.31.J2

Jeeves, Alan H. Migrant Labour in South Africa’s Mining Economy: The Struggle for the Gold Mines Labour Supply, 1890–1920 (Kingston, Ont: McGill-Queens University Press, 1985) HM 1455.6.J3

Johnstone, I. Class, Race and Gold (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976) HC 9756.J6

Labour, Capital and Society Special Issue of this Journal Vol 25 (1)

Legassick, M. and F. de Clercq ‘Capitalism and Migrant Labour in Southern Africa: The Origin and Nature of the System’, in S Marks and P Richardson (eds) International Labour Migration Historical Perspectives (London: Maurice Temple Smith, 1984) HM 1450.I6

Levy, N. The Foundation of the South African Cheap Labour System (London: Routledge, 1982) Chapters 2, 4, 5, 6 tic 7 HM 9563.31.L3 (Lots of detail, don’t get bogged down.)

McNamara, J. K. ‘Migration Routes to the Gold Mines and Compound Accommodation 1889–1912’, South African Labour Bulletin 4 (3), 1978

Moroney, S. ‘The Development of the Compound as a Mechanism of Worker Control: 1900–1912’, South African Labour Bulletin Vol. 4, 1978

Turrell, R. V. Capital and Labour on the Kimberly, Diamond Fields, 1871–90 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19??) HM 9563.9.T8)

Wilson, F. Labour in the South African Gold Mines, 1911–1969 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972) HM 9563.31.W4

van Onselen, C. Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia 1900–1933 (London: Pluto Press, 1976) (Rhodesia, not South Africa, but many analogies) HM 9543.31.V2

Yudelman, D. The Emergence of Modern South Africa: State, Capital and the Incorporation of Organised Labour on the South African Goldfields (Westport, Conn.: 1983) HM 9563.31.Y8
Self-check: You should know about the nature of labour recruitment in southern Africa, understand the reasons for the deployment of oscillating labour and have a good awareness of how the hostels and compounds functioned