5 Books about Immigration and Labor to Add to Your Reading List This Labor Day

Labor Day, which became a holiday in 1894, celebrates the dignity of every worker and the legacy of the worker movement in the United States. But for many workers who help keep America running but do not have a pathway to legal immigration status, their labor often goes unrecognized, unappreciated, and undervalued.

In fact, just today Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center, calls for a pathway to citizenship in part as a way to “recognize and honor the millions of immigrant essential workers that have helped us survive the pandemic.”

Now — my immigration research tends to focus squarely on the legal and political geography of immigration enforcement, race and policing, and borders. But that doesn’t mean I see immigration/migration issues as separate from the economics of migration. In fact, over the past several years as part of the Central Ohio Worker Center and now on the board of the Workers’ Center of Central New York, I have come to appreciate and understand the importance of connecting labor justice with immigrant justice from a grassroots perspective.

This labor day, I want to share with you five books about migration and labor. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means. I’m almost embarrassed about how many books that I didn’t include! Such is the nature of trying to keep things short and sweet. Here’s my justification, though: I chose these five because they are (1) contemporary…