Skilling Me Softly: Immigrant Workers and Implicitly Racialized Capitalism in the U.S.

Abstract

This paper shows how work visas racialize immigrant labor in the U.S., paying specific attention to Specialty Occupation (H-1B) visas and Temporary Worker (H-2A and H-2B) visas. I undertake comparative-historical analysis using theoretical, qualitative, and quantitative methods. I make the following three arguments. First, I develop the theoretical framework of ‘implicitly racialized capitalism’ to explain why, in the post-Civil Rights era, the racialization of immigrant labor is necessarily covert. Second, I demonstrate the path dependent relationship between the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, and the 1990 Immigration Act. Third, I demonstrate that work visas racialize tech work and farmwork through racially coded conceptions of ‘skill’. H-1B visas racialize tech work as a ‘high-skilled’ occupation for Indian immigrants. H-2 visas racialize farmwork as an ‘unskilled’ occupation for Mexican immigrants. H-1B visas facilitate Indian inclusion, while H-2 visas lead to Mexican exclusion from American society.