Mexican migrant workers and workplace communication: the influence of informal labor on English language usage, literacy, and perceptions of ‘the American Dream’

Abstract

This article describes the findings of an exploratory field study of Mexican migrant workers and the daily realities they experience when it comes to communicating for work in the United States, mainly in informal sectors of the economy. In unstructured interviews or 'conversations,' migrants share narratives about the type of communication they do at work, communication challenges, what they perceive as strengths and weaknesses/easy or difficult communication, and what profession they held when in Mexico. In addition, they provide insight into their feelings about the current state of the immigration in the United States, how much they know about the immigration debates, and how this might impact how they communicate at work. The article features migrant narratives, social-political-economic implications, and implications for continued research possibilities in this area, which is largely unexplored by communication research. Keywords: migrant communication; fringe communication; Mexican migrants in informal labor; migrant labor and communication; immigration and migrant communicationRarely do we think of migrant narratives as part of the landscape of business communication. However, given the continuous presence of migrants in the US labor market, it would seem fitting to look more closely at migrant workers and the nature of their workplace communication. This article attempts to do just that. In particular, it focuses on one of the dominant migrant groups in the US economy, Mexican migrant workers. The pages that follow highlight the voices of these workers within the culture of American business communication through the findings of an exploratory field study that considers Mexican migrant workers and the daily realities they experience when it comes to communicating for work in the United States. In unstructured interviews or 'conversations,' migrants share narratives about the type of communication they do at work, communication challenges, what they perceive as strengths and weaknesses/easy or difficult communication, and how closely their profession in the United States aligns with the profession they held while in Mexico. This topic has timely relevance to the economic and political climate, given the current national emphasis on labor and unemployment and on the future of immigration policy. Awareness about the factors that influence *Email: loreleio@stedwards.edu Este articulo presenta investigaciones exploratorias sobre un estudio de trabajadores migrantes Mexicanos en Estados Unidos y sus experiencias en cuanto al trabajo y la comunicación oral y por escrito, en sectores informales de la economia.