VTechWorks staff will be away for the Independence Day holiday from July 4-7. We will respond to email inquiries on Monday, July 8. Thank you for your patience.
 

Circuits of Power in Alabama's Immigration Politics: Labor Justice and Corporate Social Responsibility

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorJamison, Elizabeth Cori Shieldsen
dc.contributor.committeechairSmith, Barbaraen
dc.contributor.committeememberStephenson, Max O. Jr.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWokutch, Richard E.en
dc.contributor.committeememberNickel, Patricia Michelleen
dc.contributor.departmentPolitical Scienceen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-19T06:00:17Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-19T06:00:17Zen
dc.date.issued2015-11-25en
dc.description.abstractAt the time of its debate and passage in 2010-2011, Alabama's immigration law evoked support and opposition from across the state and nation. Despite the outcry, the Alabama business community projected a pronounced public "silence". This silence was particularly curious because of the law's clear and intended goal of self-deportation of Latinos who are a significant labor source for Alabama agri-businesses and food processing industries. The key question for this dissertation is: Why did the poultry processing industry, which has high populations of Latino employees and a significant industrial presence in Alabama, stay publicly silent despite a predictable impact on their labor supply? This qualitative analysis used the lens of the circuits of power model to interrogate this question. The findings indicate that Alabama poultry processors found themselves susceptible to the same opportunities and challenges as any other social actor confronted with the racialized, politicized, and historically contingent challenges facing Latino labor in Alabama. In other words, these business actors were fully socially embedded actors within Alabama. I demonstrate that individual residents, relevant associations, Alabama's politicians, and even the poultry processors themselves never fully realized the political vulnerability of their particular embeddedness until it was too late for poultry processing employers to publicly act to protect their Latino employees from this unjust state law. I collected and triangulated data from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, media reports, state and national statistics, official websites, and legal documents. Through discourse and content analysis of this data, I developed a case study that demonstrates how Alabama's poultry processors were on a collision course with Alabama state politicians over immigration reform, but they never saw it coming. In so doing, I raise important questions about limits on the "real" power of economic actors for achieving self-interested business outcomes when those interests contest strongly-held social and cultural norms that are infused with a particular history of race, difference, and alterity in local spaces. I demonstrate that these limits raise questions for the democratic process and have consequences for economic actors with regard to corporate social responsibility claims as they pertain to labor justice.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:6755en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/77689en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectPoweren
dc.subjectImmigration Policyen
dc.subjectCorporate Social Responsibilityen
dc.subjectCritical Theoryen
dc.subjectRace and Ethnicityen
dc.subjectNuevo Southen
dc.subjectLabor Justiceen
dc.subjectState Politicsen
dc.titleCircuits of Power in Alabama's Immigration Politics: Labor Justice and Corporate Social Responsibilityen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thoughten
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Jamison_EC_D_2015.pdf
Size:
11.75 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Doctoral Dissertations