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Illegal People Book Review

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Latin American Studies
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Cuyamaca College
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Bacon, David, Illegal People: Book Review
The book; Illegal People, by David Bacon, revolves around three major elements that are
rarely discussed in dominant mainstream media; migration, labor, and globalization. The book is
an epitome of a notable investigation book, as it explores how the prior main elements tangle in
the view of national, local, and international political and economic climate. Bacon majorly
focuses on Latin America and the US migration issues but also touches on Europe and Asia.
Bacon investigates the injustices and the hidden criminalization of immigrants that are
encouraged by the demeaning policies set up by the governments. The writer addresses the
consequences of globalization, with the most common being the intentional documentation of
migrants and the near impossible to complete bureaucracy of HI-B visas. Bacon also focuses on
case studies of injustices and unfairness of the guest worker programs in Europe. Bacon, through
this book, aims to promote the consideration of human rights in the continuous drive for
globalization. The significant theme in this book that Bacon is expounding on is the importance
of the rights of workers and how key it is to locally and internationally Unionize labor. Through
forming unions that fought for workers' rights, maybe the injustices faced by the migrants would
abate if not be eliminated.
This book perfectly portrays the aspect of illegality that was branded to the immigrants
for the lack of documents legalizing their stay in the United States. David claims that the
illegality of people; was more of a social and political state rather than a lack of proper

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documentation. This branding of immigrants as illegal people was a way of allowing inequality
whereby the society split people into those who possessed rights and those who lacked. More so,
those that belonged to the community and the other latter did not belong. Boston points out his
distaste in this fiasco as both the legitimate and illegitimate citizens contributed equally to the
economy of the US. Additionally, Boston condemns the political and economic structure of the
US, which generated illegal people by dislocating them and then created unfavorable conditions
by negating their rights and equality. The immigrants majorly provided cheap labor in
businesses owned by legitimate citizens. The book voices the tribulations experienced by the
immigrants and the social inequality they endured. More so, dissimilar to many authors, Boston
narrates the story from the immigrant’s perspective. (Preface vi)
To illustrate the conditions the immigrants were in; Bacon introduces us to Luz
Dominguez, a hotel housekeeper in Emeryville California working for Woodfin Suites Hotel.
Dominguez confesses of the exhaustion and overburden she regularly felt from her work in the
hotel. However, she worked extremely hard to retain the job since she needed it to cater to her
needs and pay for her daughter’s education back in Mexico. However, Luz and other immigrant
workers were rendered unemployed when the Bush administration endorsed a policy that ensured
the removal of undocumented immigrants from their jobs and also out of the country. (Bacon 2)
David also briefly describes the living condition of Luz, whereby she lives in Oakland’s
Fruitvale District, in a miniature two-bedroom gray and unfurnished house. (Bacon 8) Moreover,
he shows how the immigrants struggled to settle in the US and how difficult it was to find work.
Luz stated that it was crucial to adopt an optimistic attitude and persist in asking for jobs from
one street to another regardless of the unfamiliarity with the streets. (Bacon 9)

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Last Name 1 Your Name Instructor Name Course Number Date Bacon, David, Illegal People: Book Review The book; Illegal People, by David Bacon, revolves around three major elements that are rarely discussed in dominant mainstream media; migration, labor, and globalization. The book is an epitome of a notable investigation book, as it explores how the prior main elements tangle in the view of national, local, and international political and economic climate. Bacon majorly focuses on Latin America and the US migration issues but also touches on Europe and Asia. Bacon investigates the injustices and the hidden criminalization of immigrants that are encouraged by the demeaning policies set up by the governments. The writer addresses the consequences of globalization, with the most common being the intentional documentation of migrants and the near impossible to complete bureaucracy of HI-B visas. Bacon also focuses on case studies of injustices and unfairness of the guest worker programs in Europe. Bacon, through this book, aims to promote the consideration of human rights in the continuous drive for globalization. The significant theme in this book that Bacon is expounding on is the importance of the rights of workers and how key it is to locally and internationally Unionize labor. Through forming unions that fought for workers' rights, maybe the injustices faced by the migrants would abate if not be eliminated. This book perfectly portrays the aspect of illegality that was brande ...
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