Date of Award

Spring 5-4-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Christopher Levesque, Assistant Professor of Law and Society and Sociology

Second Advisor

Jennifer Johnson, Professor of Sociology

Third Advisor

Joseph Klesner, Professor of Political Science and International Studies

Abstract

The thesis examines the paradox at the center of migrant farm labor in the United States, in which workers are indispensable to agricultural production, yet they remain structurally vulnerable, isolated, and often invisible. I focus on the H-2A visa program, which has expanded rapidly and now serves as a primary legal channel for agricultural labor. I want to study why structural vulnerability persists in the presence of formal legal protections. My research shows that this vulnerability is not simply a failure of enforcement but a condition structured through the law itself. Using qualitative scholarship in combination with quantitative analysis of administrative data, I connect employer reporting of harsh working conditions and wage disparities to broader institutional patterns. I develop a framework of status-differentiated legal violence to explain how legal status categories, including employer-tied temporary and unauthorized statuses, lead to distinct yet interconnected levels of constraints that migrant farmworkers experience as they live and work in the United States. I show that these constraints normalize workplace harms across time and region. Analyzing the 2024 Protection Rule, I find that policy reform does not directly improve material conditions for migrant farmworkers, but rather leads to uneven shifts in visibility of harsh working conditions and wage disparities without reducing underlying harm. I bring forward the idea that legality itself functions as a mechanism of labor control. Meaningful reform must address not only regulatory standards but also the structural conditions that sustain migrant farmworker vulnerability.

Rights Statement

All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.

Download

Available for download on Tuesday, May 09, 2028

Share

COinS