The Rebuilding of a Tourist Industry: Immigrant Labor Exploitation in the Post-Katrina Reconstruction of New Orleans

Abstract

On August 29, 2005, the storm referred to as Hurricane Katrina, one of the most deadly and destructive in U.S. history, struck land, causing massive devastation in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita hit the same area, magnifying the damage to infrastructure, buildings, and services for basic survival. Now, more than a year after Katrina and Rita, the efforts at recovery continue. The massive needs for reconstruction and attempts at revitalization of economies in the region have served as catalysts to changes in the demographic landscape. Mainstream media coverage and academic attention to the injustices experienced by survivors of the hurricanes are continuing to expose tangible evidence of racial and class oppressions. There exists, however, an omission in the examination of the complexity of racial oppressions. I refer here to the large immigrant populations that now comprise the primary work force in reconstruction of the impacted region. This work force is made up of primarily Latina/o women and men who have been lured to the Deep South by unscrupulous labor recruiters to fill the demand for low-wage, exploitable labor. In the examination of racial oppression and class oppressions post-Katrina, the struggles and abuses of this highly marginalized population have most often received one of two responses: erasure or hostility.