The Experience of Job-Displaced Mexican-Americans From San Antonio, Texas Who Have Received Retraining
Abstract
What is the meaning of the Mexican-American's job displacement and participation in a training program? To answer this question, this study adopted hermeneutic phenomenology as a methodological approach. My intention was to search for deep meaning of job displacement followed by entering an educational program.
Ten Mexican-American individuals who had been displaced from their job due to economic and trade reasons, and who later participated in a retraining program, were interviewed. Tentative themes were drawn from the analysis, and 15 thematic categories were confirmed after follow-up interviews. The themes were: Mexican-American Culture, Machismo, Self-determination, Resilience, Union Membership, Job Security, Have Someone Advocate for Their Rights, Job Displacement, Trade-related Closure, Breach of the Psychological Contract, Emotional Distress, Education and Retraining, Entrepreneurship and Problems with Workforce Benefits.
The themes were expanded based on participants' words and then discussed through a post-analysis literature review. Recommendations were made to government and non-government organizations advocating for a potential change in policies. Recommendations were also provided to healthcare providers and to U.S. American workers. Finally, recommendations were made for future research.
Subject
Displaced workersjob loss
retraining
Mexican-American
Hispanic
Latinos
trade-related job loss
workforce agency
Workforce Investment Act
Trade Adjustment Assistance
breach of the psychological contract
machismo
resilience
bargaining union
adult learning
NAFTA.
Citation
Mena, Diana (2012). The Experience of Job-Displaced Mexican-Americans From San Antonio, Texas Who Have Received Retraining. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2012 -08 -11539.