IIH/SOC MIGRATION WORKSHOP SPEAKER SERIES: Laura López-Sanders, Associate Professor at Brown University | The Manufacturing of Job Displacement: How Racial Capitalism Drives Immigrant and Gender Inequality in the Labor Market
10/15/2024 - IIH/SOC MIGRATION WORKSHOP SPEAKER SERIES: Laura López-Sanders, Associate Professor at Brown University | The Manufacturing of Job Displacement: How Racial Capitalism Drives Immigrant and Gender Inequality in the Labor Market
In this talk, Dr. Laura López-Sanders presented research from her book The Manufacturing of Job Displacement: How Racial Capitalism Drives Immigrant and Gender Inequality in the Labor Market (NYU Press, 2024). The book employs the framework of racial capitalism to explore how employers strategically implement “orchestrated racialized displacement” to maximize profit and exert control. Dr. López-Sanders argues that racialized displacement is deliberately engineered by employers who exploit undocumented Latino workers to undermine and control native-born Black workers. This dynamic is a defining feature of racial capitalism, where racial and legal hierarchies are central to labor extraction. The study challenges the conventional understanding that racially segmented labor markets arise solely from social networks, labor organizing, “race-neutral” hiring and promotion practices, or macro-level market forces. By focusing on employer agency and the intersection of race, gender, and legal status, this research shifts attention from workers to the employer-driven interactions and decisions that perpetuate racial and gender inequalities in the labor market.
