Migrant-serving organizations and the social regulation of Chicago's informal economy

Transformations in urban economies are leading to the growth of jobs where labor and employment laws are routinely violated. Sometimes called the "informal economy," workers in these jobs are subject to harsh conditions, low wages, and hazardous work sites. Many of these workers are migrants who are in a weak position to make demands on their employers or to request government assistance. Migrant-serving nonprofit organizations have been on the forefront of mediating the local conflicts that have been generated by renewed mass migration to U.S. cities. This dissertation examines the role of migrant-serving organizations in Chicago, as they attempt to forge responses to the problems facing both workers and employers in the informal economy. The strategies that organizations have developed are categorized as "reactive" or "proactive." The proactive strategies are the following: worker-employer intermediation; workers' rights education and leadership training; establishing worker co-operatives and alternatives to employment in the informal economy; protest; and policy advocacy. The reactive strategies are the following: assisting workers with social reproduction; hiring staff from the service-area neighborhoods; and providing workers with physical and social spaces between jobs. Data for this work is drawn from a survey of migrant-serving organizations, a series of semi-structured interviews with key informants, and participant observation conducted in three nonprofit organizations.;The literature on the informal economy largely fails to account for how this segment of the economy is socially regulated by the institutions of society. I argue that nonprofit organizations have become integral to the informal economy, partially and temporarily resolving the conflicts that characterize this segment of the labor market. This insight makes a theoretical contribution to understanding how the informal economy functions and the experiences of migrant workers in these jobs. I conclude by considering the policy and planning implications of this work. Various policy and programmatic responses can be developed to further support the work of migrant-serving organizations in assisting workers and upgrading the conditions of work.