In Conflicting Commitments, Shannon Gleeson offers readers a nuanced analysis of how to make rights real in contested political fields. Based on a skillful comparison between San Jose, California and Houston, Texas—two of the largest traditional immigrant destinations in the country—she reveals precisely how local political contexts matter for implementing formal legal protections. Using the complicated terrain of the enforcement of undocumented Latino immigrants' worker rights as a case study, the book compels readers to think more broadly about the actors and complementary actions involved in successful claims making.
Based on nearly five years of research, including 90 interviews with employees at labor standards enforcement agencies, representatives of civil society groups, and consular staff, as well as another 50 interviews with Latino immigrant restaurant workers in San Jose and Houston, the book contains rich and meticulously documented data. The Introduction, which presents the theoretical framework for the project, is followed by Chapter 1—a tour de force of the conditions of low-wage work in the United States, formal labor protection laws, and the many ways workers' rights are continually violated. This chapter also traces the central role of an immigrant labor force in the unequal development of both San Jose and Houston and the barriers these workers face in the context of decreasing unionization, underfunded labor standards enforcement agencies, and increasingly anti-immigrant climates. Chapter 2 provides extensive details of the labor and immigration laws that shape current workplace conditions, as they exist on the books and in theory. To demonstrate how they work in practice, Gleeson draws on interviews with bureaucrats in labor standards enforcement agencies. They must navigate their institutional mission to remove undocumented immigrants from the country, on the one hand, while also enforcing all workers' labor rights, on the other hand. Chapters 3 through 5 reveal how political climate, particularly public sentiment toward undocumented immigrants, shapes local responses to immigrant workers, thereby also determining the agendas of civil society and consular offices. She concludes with a brief look toward the future of immigrant worker rights and civic engagement.
Throughout the book, Gleeson calls for a move away from narrow and short-sighted analyses of immigrant integration that examine claims making only through the perspective of immigrants who are politically engaged or through service providers in a single location. Instead, she suggests that scholars first uncover the political field in its entirety to then locate the interconnections between different players that are crucial to claims-making outcomes. In following this approach, Gleeson finds that rates and success of immigrant workers claims depend on various factors. Despite being written into law and organizational missions, the process of protecting immigrant workers' rights is always influenced by local political contexts. In the heavily pro-union and mostly pro-immigrant San Jose, for example, the California Labor Commissioner plays an active role in protecting workers. This minimizes the need for other players to get involved, thereby freeing up civil society coalitions to organize around other important issues. In Houston, where workers are afforded only minimum protections, civil society and consular offices must step up to play important roles. With strong anti-immigrant sentiment and weak labor protections, this Texan city is home to more creative and diverse coalitions—notably also including an active business community—that work to protect workers' rights.
The book's steady and thorough analysis represents an important breakthrough in the immigrant integration literature because it makes evident the political power of undocumented low-wage workers despite their immigration status, so long as other actors are able to work together well. Gleeson reveals the crucial links between different often-disjointed actors; when these are complementary, the patchwork of institutions successfully protects workers' rights, but when the organizational missions collide, workers are left with few resources. She has opened up the field of immigrant integration, offering a nuanced approach to the study of low-wage immigrant workers and the various actors that individually and collectively facilitate or deter their success. This gap between legal protections and actual rights is central in determining how immigrants will fare over the short- and long-term throughout the country.
Indeed, the book imparts key lessons for scholars in multiple fields. Immigration and sociology of law scholars will be interested to understand how studies of claims making are incomplete without analysis of the political field in which claims-making decisions are embedded. Moreover, political fields cannot be ascertained only through agencies' organizational missions, particularly when there are contradictory multilayered institutional missions. The same rule applies to elected officials who are guided not only by their campaign promises but also by the strength of their constituents' political sentiment. Finally, Gleeson reveals that despite their legal status, undocumented immigrant workers have considerable political power, but this is most effective when various players come together to adapt to the specific needs and conditions in each locale.
