Waiting On Washington: Central American Workers in the Nation's Capital

Appendix: Methodology

Appendix: Methodology The data and life histories presented in this book were collected in detailed interviews and surveys conducted between 1988 and 1990. Fieldwork for the project involved a multimethod approach in order to complement survey data with ethnographic material. The work also draws upon my involvement -as a teacher of English and a volunteer worker in special projects-with several social service agencies that cater to Latin American immigrants. The project initially entailed interviews with thirty representatives of social service agencies, local government , and community-based groups working primarily with Central American immigrants. These visits aided in the identification of vital issues confronting Central American immigrants in the Washington area, in the collection of data on client populations , and in pinpointing streets and apartment complexes where a large number of recent immigrants from Central American countries resided. Later, as part of a project studying the impact of IRCA for a congressional report, I interviewed seventyfive employers in the construction, restaurant, and cleaning industries who employed a significant number of immigrants of Central American origin. These interviews assessed the labor market trends and changes in the workplace for recent immigrants since the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 198 Appendix (IRCA) went into effect, and they are described in detail further on. For the interview sample of fifty Central American immigrants , three social service agencies that catered primarily to Latin American immigrants were chosen as interview sites, and potential respondents were randomly selected from the case loads of the agencies. Two of the three agencies were privately run community-based agencies that received some funding from the D.C. government as well as from private sources. One of the agencies was heavily frequented by recent immigrants from Central American countries in search of referrals for employment, housing, food, and other basic needs. The second agency provided services for women with small children who had no other recourse for pre- and postnatal services. The third agency was a church-based organization that also provided employment, housing, educational, and other information on basic services available in the local community. This agency was authorized to provide English-language classes to immigrants who qualified for the general amnesty under the new immigration law. The three agencies were selected as sites for interviews because a majority of clients originated in the Central American countries, because they were among the best-known and most widely used agencies in the community, and because the directors of these agencies allowed me the use of their facilities for the interviews. A snowball sampling method was also employed, as initial respondents were asked to suggest the names of relatives or friends who might be interested in participating in the study. This method was used at the onset of the research for the purpose of selecting and comparing roughly equal numbers of documented and undocumented Central Americans, as well as more recent immigrants and earlier arrivals. The difficulties of sampling recent Central American immigrants are evident, since a completely random survey of a largely undocumented population is impossible, as Cornelius (1982) cautioned. Aware of the potential pitfalls of drawing conclusions from a nonrandom snowball Methodology 199 sample,l I used this information primarily to frame the questions for a survey that would gather data from a wider population of Central Americans as well as to enrich quantitative data with personal life histories. Most of the interviews were conducted on the premises of the social service agencies or in respondents' apartments or homes. When approached under the aegis of a social service agency or upon recommendations from friends or family members, very few of those who were asked to participate in the study refused to do so. Soliciting participants in this manner ensured that informants were more at ease in answering questions-a critical factor among largely undocumented immigrants who prefer to conceal their identities, since they are highly vulnerable and subject to deportation. On the basis of information obtained in the interviews, certain neighborhoods and apartment buildings with large populations of Central American residents were targeted for a random survey .2 This survey of one hundred randomly selected Central American households was conducted with the aid of four Salvadoran research assistants. Five different sites were selected in the District of Columbia and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs , and at each of the sites apartment buildings and housing complexes were identified as locations where many of the tenants originated...