Skills of the “Unskilled”: Work and Mobility among Mexican Migrants

A virtual lecture by Dr. Jaqueline Hagan (Department of Sociology, UNC Chapel Hill), free and open to the public, in collaboration with Pitt Community College.

Most labor and migration studies classify migrants with limited formal education or credentials as “unskilled.” Despite the value of migrants’ work experiences and the substantial technical and interpersonal skills developed throughout their lives, the labor-market contributions of these migrants are often overlooked and their mobility pathways poorly understood. In this talk, drawing on her book “Skills of the ‘Unskilled,’” Dr. Jaqueline Hagen (Department of Sociology, UNC-Chapel Hill) will report the findings of a five-year study that draws on research including interviews with 320 Mexican migrants and return migrants in North Carolina and Mexico. She will uncover these migrants’ lifelong human capital and identify mobility pathways associated with the acquisition and transfer of skills across the migratory circuit, including reskilling, occupational mobility, job jumping, and entrepreneurship.