The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border
The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border
Much has been debated about the presence of undocumented workers along the South Texas border, but these debates often overlook the more complete dimension: the region’s longstanding, undocumented economies as a whole. Borderlands commerce that evades government scrutiny can be categorized into informal economies (the unreported exchange of legal goods and services) or underground economies (criminal economic activities that, obviously, occur without government oversight). Examining long-term study, observation, and participation in the border region, with the assistance of hundreds of locally embedded informants, The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border presents unique insights into the causes and ramifications of these economic channels.
The third volume in UT–Pan American’s Borderlife Project, this eye-opening investigation draws on vivid ethnographic interviews, bolstered by decades of supplemental data, to reveal a culture where divided loyalties, paired with a lack of access to protection under the law and other forms of state-sponsored recourse, have given rise to social spectra that often defy stereotypes. A cornerstone of the authors’ findings is that these economic activities increase when citizens perceive the state’s intervention as illegitimate, whether in the form of fees, taxes, or regulation. From living conditions in the impoverished colonias to President Felipe Calderón’s futile attempts to eradicate police corruption in Mexico, this book is a riveting portrait of benefit versus risk in the wake of a “no-man’s-land” legacy.
The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border is an engaging, important, and meticulously researched book that offers readers new insights about the intersection of locale and informal and underground economies.
A powerful and important contribution to the field. It will indeed be useful to readers and teachers in many social science and public policy fields outside sociology. . . . I found the text and data very real, solid, and fascinating.
Very clear and innovative. . . . Makes a major contribution to the discussion of informal labor in the United States and covers new ground that has been studied a lot in developing countries but has been largely ignored as a component of the U.S. labor force.
Chad Richardson is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Texas Pan American. His previous books are Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados: Class and Culture on the South Texas Border and On the Edge of the Law:Culture, Labor, and Deviance on the South Texas Border.
Michael J. Pisani is Professor of International Business at Central Michigan University and is also affiliated with the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University. His research emphasizes cross-border business within Central America and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Culture, Structure and the South Texas–Northern Mexico Border Economy
- Chapter 2: Underground Economic Activities
- Chapter 3: Informal Economic Activities
- Chapter 4: Informality and Undocumented Workers
- Chapter 5: Informal Cross-Border Trade
- Chapter 6: Border Colonias: Informality in Housing
- Chapter 7: The Informal Health Care Economy (with Dejun Su)
- Chapter 8: Family and Welfare Informality (with Amelia Flores)
- Conclusion
- Appendix A: Borderlife Survey Research Projects Utilized in This Volume
- Appendix B: Names of Students Who Contributed Ethnographic Accounts
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
