Abstract
This study observes how residents and unauthorized immigrants reacted innovatively alongside the undocumented economy due to the rigid immigration and economic legal systems between the United States and Mexico, especially the former. I examine such economic processes in California’s rural Imperial County and Baja California’s urban Mexicali between 1917 and 2000. During this period, both nation-states created immigration laws that influenced the region’s demographic makeup, transforming the area from a multiracial and multiethnic community into a predominantly ethnic-Mexican borderland. Despite ethnic Mexicans comprising most of the population in the Imperial-Mexicali Valley, restrictive immigration laws and discriminatory preconceptions pushed them into low-paying jobs in the agricultural, service, and retail sectors. Furthermore, lower annual immigration quotas in the late 1960s meant that many Mexican citizens had to pay for services and goods in that country in cash as unauthorized immigrants. Thus, residents and immigrants persevered by engaging in pioneering undocumented sub-economies. They formed swap meets and worked as informal street vendors, taxi drivers, housekeepers, and other occupations to alleviate their economic condition, expanding the borderland economy.
Degree Date
Spring 5-13-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
History
Advisor
John R. Chávez
Second Advisor
Jill E. Kelly
Third Advisor
Neil Foley
Fourth Advisor
Jessica Ordaz
Subject Area
History
Number of Pages
304
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Angulo, Jonathan, "An Undocumented Economy: Side Hustles, Gigs, Swap Meets, and Migration in the Imperial-Mexicali Valley, 1917-2000" (2023). History Theses and Dissertations. 19.
https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_history_etds/19
Included in
Oral History Commons, Political History Commons, Public History Commons, United States History Commons
