How the Other Half Works : Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor

__How the Other Half Works__ solves the riddle of America's contemporary immigration puzzle: why an increasingly high-tech society has use for so many immigrants who lack the basic skills that today's economy seems to demand. In clear and engaging style, Waldinger and Lichter isolate the key factors that explain the presence of unskilled immigrants in our midst. Focusing on Los Angeles, the capital of today's immigrant America, this hard-hitting book elucidates the other side of the new economy, showing that hiring is finding not so much "one's own kind" but rather the "right kind" to fit the demeaning, but indispensable, jobs many American workers disdain. How the Other Half Works solves the riddle of America's contemporary immigration puzzle: why an increasingly high-tech society has use for so many immigrants who lack the basic skills that today's economy seems to demand. In clear and engaging style, Waldinger and Lichter isolate the key factors that explain the presence of unskilled immigrants in our midst. Focusing on Los Angeles, the capital of today's immigrant America, this hard-hitting book elucidates the other side of the new economy, showing that hiring is finding not so much "one's own kind" but rather the "right kind" to fit the demeaning, but indispensable, jobs many American workers disdain. Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Part one. How the Other Half Works 1. Introduction Part two. The Social Organization of Labor 2. What Employers Want 3. Doing the Job 4. The Language of Work Part three. From Market to Work 5. Network, Bureaucracy, and Exclusion 6. Social Capital and Social Closure 7. Bringing the Boss Back In Part four. Prejudice, Preferences, and Conflict 8. Whom Employers Want 9. “Us” and “Them” 10. Diversity and Its Discontents Part five. Ethnicity at Work 11. Black/Immigrant Competition 12. Conclusion Appendix: The Local Context Notes Index