"They Dumped Me Like Trash": The Social and Psychological Toll of Victimization on Latino Day Laborers' Lives. Issue 3 (10th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Negi, Nalini Junko; Siegel, Jennifer; Calderon, Marilyn; Thomas, Emilie; Valdez, Avelardo
• Is Part Of: American journal of community psychology. Volume 65:Issue 3/4(2020)
• Page Start: 369
• Page End: 380
• Publication Date: 2019-12-10
• Subjects: Latino day laborers -- Latino immigrants -- Crime victimization -- New immigrant settlements -- Immigrant mental health -- Latino mental health; Community psychology -- Periodicals; Community mental health services -- Periodicals; Community psychiatry -- Periodicals; Community Mental Health Services -- Periodicals; Community Psychiatry -- Periodicals; 155.905
• DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12406
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-0562

Abstract

Highlights: Latino day laborers are vulnerable to crime victimization in new immigrant settlement cities. Victimization led to sociocultural alienation, despair or desesperación, and problem drinking. Findings highlight the intersection of structural vulnerability, violence, and mental health. Abstract: Although recent rhetoric links undocumented immigrants to criminality, reports indicate undocumented immigrants commit less crime than their native‐born counterparts and that this vulnerable group may be at increased risk for criminal victimization. Immigrants living in new immigrant settlement cities may be particularly at risk for exposure to criminal victimization due to the vulnerabilities associated with a lack of an established Latino community and limited availability of culturally appropriate social services to provide support. This ethnographic study examines the experiences of victimization and its social and psychological toll of a street‐recruited sample of Latino day laborers (LDLs) ( N = 25) living and working in Baltimore, a new immigrant settlement city. Findings elucidate and describe the specific types of victimization experienced by LDLs, including workplace victimization (wage theft, abandonment at the jobsite, poor working conditions, verbal abuse) and street‐level victimization (assault and robbery), as well as reveal the social and psychological toll of victimization (sociocultural alienation, despair or desesperación, and problem drinking) on their lives. Findings have implications for community psychology, through research and practice, as they provide insights for prevention and intervention within the intersection of structural vulnerability (i.e., undocumented immigration status), violence, and mental health.