Networks of Exploitation: Immigrant Labor and the Restructuring of the Los Angeles Janitorial Industry

Many scholars have conceptualized immigrant social networks as “social capital” and have focused on the benefits of social ties. However, the concept of “social capital” is unable to explain who benefits from social networks, to what degree, and under which circumstances. Based on an ethnography of Mexican and Central American undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles janitorial industry, I argue that immigrant social networks may also become exploitative. Decentralized employment relations, hostile immigration and labor legislation, and a working-class community created a context in which recruitment through social networks facilitated restructuring. Within this context, benefits from the workers' networks accrued not to the workers themselves but to building owners. In this way, ties to family and friends constitute networks of exploitation rather than resource networks. This case suggests that more analytical attention be paid to how the benefits of social networks may change when the jobs themselves change. More broadly, it calls for attention to the contexts within which social networks become mechanisms for downgrading rather than platforms for upward mobility.