Rubén Hernández-León, director of the Center for Mexican Studies and professor of sociology at UCLA, and co-authors Jacqueline Hagan and Jean-Luc Demonsant, will receive the 2016 book award from the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility (IPM) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
Their book, “Skills of the ‘Unskilled’: Work and Mobility among Mexican Migrants,” follows migrant workers and uncovers success upon returning to Mexico with marketable skills. The research, conducted over five years, draws on 320 interviews with migrants and return migrants in North Carolina and Guanajuato, Mexico. Published in March 2015, the book has been recognized by many scholars and journals, including American Journal of Sociology.
"This vividly written book changes the way we think about ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled,’ the meaning of human capital, and the importance of things we do not normally measure for understanding immigrants, their mobility, and their impacts at home and abroad. It is a must-read for anyone interested in migration policy or research," commented J. Edward Taylor, professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis.
The IPM Section of the ASA strives to foster research and disseminate knowledge on the distribution of material and nonmaterial resources, and the economic, social, and cultural forces that generate and perpetuate unequal distributions of these resources. The award will be given at the annual ASA conference in Seattle this August.
Learn more about Hernández-León in this UCLA International Institute story.
