This dissertation focuses on the spatial organization and operation of immigrant day-labor markets, as well as the socio-spatial relationships between hiring sites and their surrounding neighborhoods that sometimes generate serious community conflicts. The primary purpose of this research is to reduce or eliminate day-labor conflicts at the local level through improved urban planning, community building and education, and improved communication networks among laborers. The geographic perspective is critical for this analysis, as planning for day labor activities requires understanding how the markets work at multiple spatial scales.

This dissertation project uses geographic information systems (GIS) and quantitative analysis in combination with qualitative research methods to explore the geography of day labor markets in the San Diego Metropolitan Area. Specifically, it examines the distribution and locational characteristics of day labor hiring sites and the neighborhoods that support them.

Each day in the SDMA, approximately 1000 men look for work at one of the forty-five total day labor hiring sites located within the region. There is considerable diversity within the day-labor population; some hiring sites are used almost entirely by recent migrants to the area, while others are used by long-time residents of a variety of backgrounds. The diversity of day laborers increased as a result of the economic downturn that began in 2006; the lingering effects of which are still visible at the time of publication in 2012. Laborers across the region employ a locational strategy termed "strategic visibility" in their selection of hiring site locations, as well as their organization within day-labor spaces. Strategic visibility maximizes employment opportunities and accessibility to employers, while avoiding undesired attention and/or visibility. The fact that day labor hiring sites are located in neighborhoods where employment opportunities are greatest - those with high levels of employment in construction and agriculture, as well as higher than average numbers of owner-occupied homes - is evidence of this strategy at the regional scale.

This regional and neighborhood-level analysis is combined with street-level observation and ethnography to understand the ways that spaces of work and social reproduction are informally constructed, maintained, and altered by day laborers and other community members. The processes that generate day labor conflicts are particularly important for this study, and the analysis in this dissertation finds that so-called day labor conflicts often arise due to local crises that are unrelated to day-labor activities. Furthermore, the actions taken by local governments and community groups to try and control day labor activities are costly and largely ineffective.

This dissertation demonstrates the importance of everyday urban rhythms on day labor activities and the ways that negotiations for control of space connect laborers and local stakeholders to each other and to particular hiring sites. Only by acknowledging these relationships and processes that connect laborers to particular spaces and incorporating them into day-labor support efforts, can local government and community groups implement policies that protect laborers and ensures that day-labor activities do not inhibit other community members from using urban spaces in the most productive manner as well.