Class Reproduction By Martha Ambrocio Summary

In Martha Elena Garcia Ambrocio’s story, race, class, and gender play a large role in her life and the development of the issue in the world that she lives in. The people that work with Elena and live in these housing units are living in terrible living conditions. The area is inspected throughout the year and has minor renovations through multiple examinations that occur. These renovations do little for the lives of the many people living in these horrid conditions and continue to fail as more people enter the country and more people in power make it harder for them to live a ‘normal’ life.
We must ask ourselves from a sociological perspective, how does it come to this way of living? Most of the people living in these housing units are laborers and undocumented immigrants. Immigration policies in the United States are extremely selective and many people of Mexican race are not given equal rights or privileges because of their race and class. It is nearly impossible for them to receive citizenship and therefor they are forced to work abysmal jobs that pay less than minimum wage. Many don’t have access to education and therefor many don’t speak English, making it difficult for them to attain another job in the
United States. Language being one of the many factors of divide causes a national racist view of them being lower class in the American corporate system. They are paid for their labor but do not get nearly enough money to support their families so usually the children will start working at a young age. This then leads to many children not receiving the education they need to continue a better future for them. The Latin American or Hispanic race has a negative connotation, especially now when many elite leaders are saying damaging statements and demanding that American’s need their jobs back. Mexican-Americans unfortunately have a very low status in the population even though they make up most of the Latin population in the United States. All of these different factors of race, gender and class play into a large part of the low status these migrant workers have an their terrible living conditions. Secondly, there are also many gender disparities that play into the social life of the migrant workers. One article discusses a colonial labor system and the relation it has as a racial oppression that has shaped the productive and reproductive labor of racial ethnic women in ways. For black, Mexican-American and Chinese-American women, key concepts such as the private-public dichotomy, gender conflict within the family and the division of reproductive labor need to be reformulated. It explains the contemporary Marxist-feminist and colonial labor system theories. (Glenn, 1985) “Not only must women migrants from Third World countries negotiate their way amidst racial and ethnic discrimination, they are also exploited because of their sex. As migrant workers they are confined to the low skill sector of the labor market. As females they are further restricted to the manual sector like sewing or child care”. In Floum’s article not much is discussed that speaks to the gender differences in the farm working conditions that Martha experiences. Many women move to jobs such as domestics or garment factories. They play a dual role as mothers and worker, unlike the husband who usually play the main role of worker. Women migrants are exploited because of their sex and confined to the low skill sectors of the labor market. The women work for lower wages than men and are usually places in positions of sewing garments or assembling electronic parts (Cultural Survival, 2016).
One study shows that there is an estimate of 3.5-6 million illegal workers with their families in the United States. These people are treated terribly and are living in the worst conditions and have little freedom and have little access citizenship or education. Unfortunately, because these women have no access to health is there are lots of undocumented health issues among all immigrants. They have lots of health risks because of low income, poor diet, no health service, and the working conditions they are in. The migrants, fearing deportation or detainment must tolerate the overpriced and terrible living conditions. Because it is so unlikely and difficult to receive healthcare, when free treatments and programs are provided they discover that many immigrants have extreme health issues such as cervical cancer and other disorders that are either incurable or too late. Many migrants suffer from pesticide poisoning (Cultural Survival, 2016)
In Domhoff’s book “Who Rules America”, he discusses the corporate elite and how they keep everyone in the system functioning a certain way in order to gain for their own benefit. Domhoff discusses how the corporate elite is going against the democratic system. They control the public’s views and opinions and this includes American’s views on immigrants and migrant workers. This causes the conflict and the terrible prejudice people have against migrant workers (Domhoff, 2009). Domhoff also describes in his book his theory of class reproduction.
Class reproduction occurs because of all of the circumstances and divides of race, gender and class that are happening in Ambrocio’s life. The class separation reproduces from a strong domination of the corporate elite and the people in power. This reproduction is maintained and only helps the rich get richer. This is a devastating realization and in order to change this system change needs to be made. This happens by placing people with democratic and liberal values in places of power. Protests and change can help affect this but it comes from the sources of power so having people fighting for the rights of migrant workers in places of power will help may a difference to this
system.