Be Our Guest: Guestworkers in Tourism and Hospitality in the United States

William Terry

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2022

Be Our Guest

Guestworkers in Tourism and Hospitality in the United States

William Terry

Volume 10 in the series De Gruyter Studies in Tourism

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110643800

Overview
Contents

About this book

Adopting a geographic lens to examine the employment of guestworkers in the United States, Be Our Guest offers readers the most comprehensive analysis of guestwork in tourism that has been produced to date. In weaving together the constellation of political and economic factors that exist across multiple scales, the case is made for how and why so many tourism-dependent areas of the United States have developed a dependency on temporary foreign workforces. Taking a holistic approach, special emphasis is placed on the economic histories of these areas and shifting patterns of employment, seasonality, gentrification, and related housing shortages.

Throughout, the voices of stakeholders involved in every aspect of guestwork are included: human resources managers battling labor shortages, town planners mitigating workforce housing shortages, and attorneys and advocates helping to directly assist migrant workers and affect policy changes. These perspectives are coupled with detailed analysis of state policies regarding guestworker visa programs and labor market stress to illustrate a vivid picture of the precarious lives of the migrant laborers who arrive in the United States.

Be Our Guest serves to specifically address a lacuna in critical tourism studies and the growing concern among practitioners over workforce quality and supply. Nevertheless, it will benefit everyone with an interest in issues of labor migration, precarity, housing policy, and immigration reform.

Combines a focus on workforce issues in tourism and hospitality with broad-based issues interwoven in American society producing a holistic view of how tourism labor fits into the overall structure of the American political-economy.

Author / Editor information

William Terry is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Geography at Clemson University. As an economic geographer, his work has primarily focused on labor and work in tourism with particular focus on labor migration as it is used in various aspects of tourism and hospitality. His research has been published in numerous academic texts and journals, including highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals in both Geography and Tourism Studies, including Economic Geography, Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Geographies.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1 An Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Tourism Work, Seasonality, and Labor Migration in the United States Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
3 Why, we only Live to Serve!: A Brief History of Guestworker Programs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
4 Pushing the Boulder up the Hill Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
5 Islands in the Stream Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
6 Put our Service to the Test: Employing Guestworkers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
7 Precarious Work – It Takes a Village Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
8 Politics and Immigration Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
9 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
List of Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Academic researchers in tourism
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 232
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 4
- Coloured Illustrations: 14
- Tables: 1
Keywords: Tourism Geography; Labor Migration; Guest Workers; Precarious Work; Workforce Housing

eBook

Published: October 24, 2022
ISBN: 9783110643800

Hardcover

Published: October 24, 2022
ISBN: 9783110639728