In the last episode of the season, host Shaka Tafari speaks with three women who work at the intersection of labor and immigration. They discuss the most pressing threats to immigrant workers, as well as the ways immigrants can resist these threats and support one another.
Our guests include: Mary from Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas, y Acciones (MISMA); Saba Waheed, director of the UCLA Labor Center, and Jessica E. Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).
The Hustle is a podcast series about the ways immigrants navigate a changing economy — today and throughout history.
On this season of The Hustle, Feet in 2 Worlds explored the ways immigrant labor has shaped certain U.S. industries, like the Mexican and Mexican American women and children who worked as pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas. Our team also spent time highlighting immigrant contributions to labor history — we talked to immigrants on the front lines, like Chinese home care workers in New York City.
In the last episode of the season, host Shaka Tafari speaks with three women who work at the intersection of labor and immigration. Our guests discuss the most pressing threats to immigrant workers, as well as the ways immigrants can resist these threats and support one another.
Since Donald Trump took office a second time, newsrooms have focused on the many threats to immigrant communities. This conversation reveals a less obvious, longer-lasting — and perhaps more sinister — danger to immigrant workers.
“By attacking immigrants and other related communities, [the administration] is trying to actually roll back worker rights and worker protections back to a hundred years ago,” says guest Saba Waheed.
Guests:
Mary (pseudonym) is a community organizer with MISMA (Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas y Acciones), a Texas organization led by immigrant women who are domestic workers. MISMA is a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). MISMA organizers train domestic workers about their rights and offer educational workshops on the history of domestic work.
Mary is bilingual in English and Spanish and has over a decade of experience as a domestic worker. She’s worked as a caregiver, a house cleaner, and a nanny.
Saba Waheed is director of the UCLA Labor Center, which uses an intersectional approach to research, education and policy with the goal of addressing the most pressing issues that workers face today.
She has led research and advocacy efforts focused on improving conditions for workers, including immigrant workers. Saba’s work includes advancing a “research justice” model that centers and documents the experiences of those most impacted by structural inequities, including immigrant, low-wage, domestic, and gig economy workers. She co-produces the Re:Work podcast, which shares firsthand accounts from workers. Saba is a Muslim Pakistani immigrant who grew up in Los Angeles.
Jessica E. Martinez is executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH), which brings together more than 25 grassroot worker organizations to demand health, safety, and justice on the job and for their communities.
National COSH advocates for worker safety in a variety of ways, including publicly calling out employers with unsafe conditions in their annual Dirty Dozen report. National COSH also launched Safety Without Borders, a campaign that equips immigrant workers with tools and knowledge to advocate for their own safety, while also pressuring employers and policymakers to create more equitable and just workplaces. Jessica is from El Salvador, is trilingual in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and champions “language justice.”
Credits
Hosted by Shaka Tafari
Produced by Maria Luisa Tucker
Edited by Lushik Lotus-Lee, Quincy Surasmith, and Mia Warren
Fact Checking by Julie Schwietert Collazo
Engineering by Iggy Monda and Jocelyn Gonzales
Original theme music by Gautam Srikishan
Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions
“The Hustle” show logo by Daniel Robles
Feet in 2 Worlds is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Fernandez Pave the Way Foundation, an anonymous donor, and contributors to our annual NewsMatch campaign.
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