Paper long abstract:

Indigenous Mexicans form the largest share of the new Mexican migrants arriving to the United States. Better job opportunities and more attractive wages coupled with severe unemployment and exploitative conditions at home have encouraged indigenous people to migrate in search of employment to the United States. As a result, indigenous Mexicans have come to el norte in record numbers and have reshaped Mexican communities in the United States. In this study, I explore how social capital and its networks facilitate the social and economic incorporation of indigenous Mexican migrants into the United States. In particular, I examine what kind of work indigenous Mexicans do, how they find work, and how they struggle to work in the new low-wage economy, raise families, and move ahead. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with Zapotec indigenous migrants from Oaxaca (Mexico) who are living in Los Angeles, the study seeks to shed light on the dynamic processes of family and ethnic networks in contemporary labor markets. The research highlights that indigenous Mexicans can count on social networks, family ties, and communities to mobilize resources more easily and effectively, including the ability to find work. Zapotec migrants rely on their networks and communities; in so doing, they strengthen these institutions and thereby accumulate social capital. This ethnographic analysis pays particular attention to how indigenous Mexicans generate social capital to obtain resources for survival and social mobility.