Research Proposal: Labor Market Participation: Undocumented Latinas and COVID-19

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people across the United States have had varying experiences within the labor market. One of the most hard-hit groups by the negative effects of the pandemic in the United States have been immigrants. They make up a sizeable portion of the workforce in America, especially the industries that have been hit the hardest during this time. Yet, they have less access to resources and governmental aid than the average American citizen. This project aims to analyze the effect of the pandemic on the labor market participation of undocumented Latinas within the Northern Virginia area. Working from a framework of intersectionality, I argue that undocumented Latinas are one of the most affected groups within the immigrant community in the U.S. due to how gender and immigration status intertwine with the negative circumstances the pandemic. The goal of this project is to find a bottom-up solution to advocate for. Any solution that can assist undocumented Latinas during this time would benefit the immigrant community as a whole.

Hello everybody, my name is Remmy, and this is my project: Labor Market Participation: Undocumented Latinas and COVID-19. So, what exactly is the research question that links these topics together? [Reads question]. Now that we’ve talked about the question, let me go ahead and break down what the project is about. I am going to break this section down into 2 topics that directly relate to my project and the broader discussions involved. This project originally started off with analyzing the relationship between economic shocks and their disproportional effects on immigrants within the United States. As I moved forward with my research, I had to narrow my scope a bit more. To start off, I decided to focus on one major economic shock in particular, that being the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? Because it was the most recent, and technically ongoing, event to have happened. Considering how fresh the event is, I believe that it would make it easier to facilitate interviews in the second part of my research. Why am I focusing on immigrants? Because I believe that they are one of the most vulnerable groups in the U.S. during any economic shock, and yet they are an integral part of society and the American economy. They make up a sizeable portion of essential workers within the United States AND they worked within some of the most hard-hit industries in the U.S. during this pandemic, yet their access to resources and governmental aid was much more limited than the average American citizen. Why focus on undocumented immigrants though? The simple answer is this: Not many do. It isn’t a well-covered topic and not for lack of trying, but because it is difficult to reach an accurate consensus on the conditions of undocumented immigrants within the country, let alone in specific regions or states. The fact that they are undocumented makes them even more vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic. According to one report from the Migration Policy Institute, approximately 6 million foreign-born workers work within vital, frontline industries (health care, social services, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, agriculture, etc.) and 6 million of them work in hard-hit industries (think accommodation, food services, building services, nonessential travel, and so on). One reason I’m focusing on undocumented Latinas is because of the concept of intersectionality. According to Professor Carol Cleaveland in her article Covid-19: Threat and Vulnerability Among Latina Immigrants, intersectionality can be best understood as “an exploration of how gender, race, and class become intertwined and reinforce oppression” for certain groups within society. Viewing this population from the framework of intersectionality, I argue that due to a combination of gender and immigration status, undocumented Latinas are one of the most vulnerable groups within the immigrant community in the United States. From this perspective, I’m searching for a bottom-up solution to propose or advocate for. If a solution can be found or promoted for in regard to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on undocumented Latinas, it could benefit the whole of the immigrant community overall. So with that in mind, what progress have I made so far? All of the progress I have made so far is purely theoretical and statistical. The bulk of my work so far has been finding sources and gaining as much perspective into the current conversations around the topics I have addressed so far. All of the work I have done was in order to build the foundations of the next phase. Speaking of which, what is next for my research? That would be conducting interviews within the Northern Virginia area. I will be reaching out to organizations within the region in order to communicate with undocumented Latinas who would be willing to take part in this process. Of course, before doing so, I will be, and I am in the process of, completing my CITI training and IRB application in order to make sure I’m conducting interviews accordingly and ethically. Thank you all.