Janitors, street vendors, and activists : the lives of Mexican immigrants in Silicon Valley / Christian Zlolniski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zlolniski, Christian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexicans--Employment--California--Santa Clara Valley (Santa Clara County).

Mexicans.

Foreign workers, Mexican--California--Santa Clara Valley (Santa Clara County).

Foreign workers, Mexican.

Unskilled labor--California--Santa Clara Valley (Santa Clara County).

Unskilled labor.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This highly accessible, engagingly written book exposes the underbelly of California's Silicon Valley, the most successful high-technology region in the world, in a vivid ethnographic study of Mexican immigrants employed in Silicon Valley's low-wage jobs. Christian Zlolniski's on-the-ground investigation demonstrates how global forces have incorporated these workers as an integral part of the economy through subcontracting and other flexible labor practices and explores how these labor practices have in turn affected working conditions and workers' daily lives. In Zlolniski's analysis, these immigrants do not emerge merely as victims of a harsh economy; despite the obstacles they face, they are transforming labor and community politics, infusing new blood into labor unions, and challenging exclusionary notions of civic and political membership. This richly textured and complex portrait of one community opens a window onto the future of Mexican and other Latino immigrants in the new U.S. economy.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley

2. The Subcontracting of Mexican Janitors in the High-Tech Industry

3. Working in the Informal Economy

4. Mexican Families in Santech

5. Community Politics in the Barrio

Conclusion: Subproletarians in a Postindustrial Economy

Epilogue: After the Dot-Com Demise

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612772009

9780520939172

0520939174

9781282772007

1282772007

9781423745532

1423745531

9781598759273

1598759272

OCLC:

475969746