Event
The Precarity of Immigrant Workers
1 College Hall. Philadelphia, PA 19104
Professor Lee will discuss how the federal law’s creation of the separate caste of immigrant workers facilitates labor extraction but rejects the immigrants themselves. While private employer exploitation certainly plays a role, it obfuscates the systemic role of the federal government in shaping these terms and conditions for primarily a workforce of color.
Featured Speakers
Professor Jennifer Lee directs the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic at the Sheller Center for Social Justice, where she works with law students to represent individuals and organizations on critical issues affecting low-income individuals in the region, with a particular focus on low-wage workers and immigrants. The clinic docket consists of employment cases at all stages of proceedings before the state and federal courts and the representation of grassroots organizations, legal nonprofits, and other entities involved in policy and legislative reform efforts, media advocacy, and community education. In conjunction with such partners, the clinic has worked on issues such as family detention, language access in the state court system, and temp workers. She received the Crystal Eastman Award for her clinic’s work on wage theft, including for the report Shortchanged, which exposes the problem of wage theft in Pennsylvania.