Abstract
Homeless youth are seldom understood as workers, but documented and undocumented homeless young people are working continuously in multiple economies to meet essential needs. This chapter draws on original ethnographic, participatory, and mixed methods research conducted in Guatemala, Mexico, western Canada, and the United States including the Labor Memoir Project and Youth Trek study. The first person perspectives of homeless youth as economic actors are at the center, disrupting traditional divisions in the discussion of formal and informal sector work. The Labor Continuum offers an economic rubric through which a range of income-generating practices and types of labor can be evaluated side by side. Despite the limitations of certain aspects of child labor laws, homeless young people participate in multiple economies, often simultaneously, doing volunteer work, transactional labor exchanging for goods and services, wage labor primarily in the low paid service sector, piece work, cottage industries, and work in the informal sector in criminalized, quasi-legal, and legal forms of work. Income-generating activities include a wide range of employment: work in restaurants and retail; day labor construction; migrant and transnational work transporting produce and sewing clothes for garment manufacturers; seasonal agricultural work (such as fruit or marijuana picking); busking, selling crafts, selling drugs, and reselling merchandise over the internet; domestic and relational labor including working as a caregiver, providing sexual services or companionship; and housecleaning or janitorial services. This testimony of youth workers about a wide variety of jobs offers insight into the challenges homeless young people face, allowing for a reevaluation of assumptions regarding levels of exploitation in formal and informal sectors and casting light on the economic decision making of youth.
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks go to all the young people who took part in participatory research projects and participated in formal and informal interviews. Great appreciation goes to my colleague and friend, Dr. Victoria de los Santos Mycue, an art therapist and psychologistwho helped interpret the lives and creative works of homeless youth. The exacting editing skills and continuous support of Drs. Patricia and William Donovan were critical to the support of these projects, and we thank them wholeheartedly. At the Oxford Department of International Development, Jo Boyden, Ph.D. is much appreciated for her mentorship and for her patient and challenging review of drafts. For previous Fellowship support and mentoring, thanks go to Claire Brindis, Dr.Ph. at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and to Pat Fox Ph.D. and Wendy Max, Ph.D. at the UCSF Institute for Health and Aging. Some of the data in this chapter comes from the Youth Trek Study, which was funded by a Technology Award grant from the NIH Supported CTSI Program (NIH NCRR UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1 RR024131). Thanks go to Nicolas Sheon, Ph.D. for his development of geospatial research methods. For their assistance with mapping, the project thanks geographic consultant Daniel Swick, designer Colleen McGinnis, and geographer Kevin Koy at the University of California, Berkeley Geospatial Innovation Facility. Thanks to Carol Leigh for her compassionate understanding and documentation of the impact of criminalization and decriminalization on poor people’s lives. Joan Vincent, Ph.D., Marjorie Robertson, Ph.D., Sylvia Israel, MFT, Jean Scandlyn, Ph.D., E. Cristin O’Keeffe J.D., and Slava Osowska all helped to lay the groundwork for this labor analysis, and Jane Roberts and Les Scott offered useful feedback at the proofing stage. Gratitude goes to Andrea Papanastassiou, M.A. for her enthusiasm, fortitude, rigor, and editorial guidance in this work. The 4th International Conference Geographies of Children Youth and Families contributed to this work, especially with respect to the debates surrounding child labor and youth worker protections. Finally, gratitude goes to volume editor, Dr. Tatek Abebe who was gracious, insightful, and encouraging.
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Blondell, A.D. (2017). Homeless Youth Labor Continuum: Working in Formal and Informal Economies from Highland Guatemala to San Francisco, California. In: Abebe, T., Waters, J. (eds) Laboring and Learning. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 10. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-032-2_24
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