The H2 Visa process in the catfish industry

摘要

This article builds on global ethnography, transnational feminist sociology, and gendered organizations to examine the processes and practices required to obtain H2 visas, temporary work permits for non-U.S. citizens seeking employment in agriculture and non-agricultural sectors. The article is based on ethnographic observation at a U.S. Consulate in Mexico with a focus on observing the process experienced by a group of Mexican workers seeking H2-A Visas to work on a catfish farm in Mississippi. I argue that by more carefully examining the roles and perspectives of the catfish farm manager? and? a U.S. Consulate Director in the process of obtaining the H2-A visas, we can move beyond “globalization from above” or “globalization from below” perspectives to a more nuanced understanding of what transnationalism looks like from the middle.? In addition, by applying a gendered organizations framework to understanding the H2 visa process at an interactional level, I demonstrate how the definition of the “good worker” is gendered.