“America’s economy increasingly depends on immigrant workers, but the study of immigration and work has somehow surprisingly disappeared from the scholarly eye. Here, to fill that gap, is Skills of the ‘Unskilled,’ a beautifully written, convincingly argued book that explains how and why the skills developed and brought by immigrants possessing little schooling nonetheless provide the backbone on which so many industries and occupations rest. An essential volume to be appreciated by scholars and students of immigration alike.”—Roger Waldinger, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
“This vividly written book changes the way we think about ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled,’ the meaning of human capital, and the importance of things we do not normally measure for understanding immigrants, their mobility, and their impacts at home and abroad. It is a must-read for anyone interested in migration policy or research.”—J. Edward Taylor, University of California, Davis
[PRAISE PAGE]
“Creatively conceived, rigorously executed, and critical for anyone interested in the dynamics of labor migration. Will replace the fallacy of the doomed ‘unskilled’ labor migrant with a nuanced view of the complex ways in which job skills are acquired through lifelong learning and deployed on both sides of the US–Mexico migrant circuit.”—Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, author of Paradise Transplanted: Migration and the Making of California Gardens
“Skills of the ‘Unskilled’ challenges stale thinking about migrants and their work by showing how they not only survive but also develop the skills to thrive.”—David FitzGerald, coauthor of Culling the Masses: The Democratic Origins of Racist Immigration Policy in the Americas
“Skills of the ‘Unskilled’ is novel, revealing, and transformative. This meticulous, skillful, and profoundly social examination of the intersection of jobs, skills, and knowledge will transform the way we see ‘immigrant jobs’ and how we talk about ‘unskilled’ labor. It will recast our images of immigrant workers in multiple consequential ways.”—Cecilia Menjívar, author of Enduring Violence: Ladina Women’s Lives in Guatemala
