Meng-Hsien Neal Liu
1 article-
Review of "Everyday Dirty Work: Invisibility, Communication, and Immigrant Labor by Wilfredo Alvarez," Alvarez, W. (2022). Everyday dirty work: Invisibility, communication, and immigrant labor. The Ohio State University Press. ↗
Abstract
Wilfredo Alvarez's (2022) Everyday Dirty Work: Invisibility, Communication, and Immigrant Labor premises its thesis around "the vital relationship among work, social and cultural integration, and language acquisition" (p. 3) for many multiply marginalized immigrants in the United States, particularly Latin Americans. In his case study of Latin American immigrants who served as janitors at a predominantly white public institute---Rocky Mountain University (RMU)---and their interactional, intercultural, and organizational communications with their patrons (e.g., university faculty, students, or staff), Alvarez theorizes how facets of social identities, communications, languages, and workplace settings are intimately intertwined to generate and reinforce public imaginaries and readings of marginalized immigrant individuals and communities.