The Fragility of the Labour Corridors to Costa Rica and the United States

Precarious Migrant Workers in Central America

Bibliographic Data

ID21829523
AuthorsAbelardo Morales-Gamboa (corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue3
Publication date2021-09-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Labour Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1918-6711 • E-ISSN: 1918-6711
PublisherMcMaster University Library (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15173/glj.v12i3.4444
OpenAlexW3203107189
LanguageEN
References cited14

Central American migration flows take place mostly through two main corridors: the northern corridor to the United States, and the southern corridor to Costa Rica. Using the concept of fragility, in this article I analyse how migration combines the precarity and vulnerability that Central American workers face, both in their home country and in the corridors toward the destination labour markets. Their movements and the conditions they encounter reflect a new scale of local and transnational labour relationships. Migrant workers constitute a segment of the workforce in transnational corridors, which circulates between several informal activities but also among key sectors of the formal economy; the latter often takes advantage of their social, occupational and even legal difficulties. Keywords: Central America; migrant workers; labour markets; informal economy; labour corridors

Economic growth · Economics · Fragility · Informal sector · Migrant workers · Political science · Precarity · Workforce · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy