Abstract
In Colorado, meat processing and packing industries profit from the low-wage labor of foreign born workers and refugees in particular. Scholars and journalists have examined the hazardous and environmentally unjust workplace conditions in meatpacking, and detailed refugee struggles in North American resettlement geographies. Our research builds from this work to examine how multi-scalar geopolitical processes shape processes of refugee resettlement and refugee labor in Colorado’s meatpacking industries. Methods for this work include analysis of secondary data and twenty-two semi-structured interviews with various actors knowledgeable about refugee resettlement and/or agricultural production in Colorado. We argue various intersecting geopolitical processes—from immigration raids of meatpacking plants to presidential-level xenophobic discourses and ensuing immigration policies—interact to impact refugee resettlement and participation in the meat production sector. Moreover, while the U.S.’s neoliberal model of outsourcing resettlement to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been widely critiqued, we argue NGO employees, many of whom identify as foreign-born and/or refugees, work to build connection and belonging among refugees in challenging resettlement environments. We suggest a feminist geopolitics approach, which examines how the “global” and the “intimate” are deeply intertwined, is a useful perspective for understanding complicated racialized spaces in the rural United States, including efforts to build connections and empower refugee identities.
Highlights
While meatpacking facilities have long been among the United States’ most dangerous workplaces [1], the spread of COVID-19 among plant workers, a population composed largely of foreign-born workers, exacerbated environmental injustice, and workplace precarity [2]
Analysis of secondary data, and feminist geopolitics, we examine the ways broader scale geopolitical and political economic shifts impact refugee admissions and meatpacking in Colorado, and the ways non-governmental organizations (NGOs) employees work to build a sense of belonging and access for new immigrants in neoliberal policy environments
These individuals are acutely aware of geopolitical contexts shaping resettlement and many work to build belonging among refugee and immigrant populations
Summary
While meatpacking facilities have long been among the United States’ most dangerous workplaces [1], the spread of COVID-19 among plant workers, a population composed largely of foreign-born workers, exacerbated environmental injustice, and workplace precarity [2]. Interview respondents with intimate knowledge of meatpacking labor and production noted that, while the current pandemic is unprecedented (from global impact to politicians’ intentional circulation of misinformation), immigrant and refugee workers are, in the words of one NGO representative, “always managing multiple intersecting crises.”. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1344 discrimination were cited as common issues by interview respondents, who are largely employees of non-governmental organizations (hereafter NGOs) working closely with refugees in rural Colorado. These intersecting stressors and crises, we argue, are situated in multi-scalar political-economic and geopolitical processes. The political contexts shaping refugees’ everyday lives are abstracted and rendered in neoliberal terms by policy narratives that focus on refugees’ economic self-sufficiently in free market economies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
