Usually our book discussion last all of 2 hours and the rest of the 5-7 hours are spent discussing hot socio-economic; socio-political issues. The fun of it is we are passionate about our opinions, each bringing a potpourri of our personalities, world view, socio cultural values, our woman experiences (which are so diverse…) and above all else each our own convictions. This diversity makes for interesting heated conversation. I am a lover of looking at the world in parallels merging different lenses into similarities of the human condition. So when we were discussing jobs and layoffs, the concern was how we could stay employed or at least survive the current waves of recession retrenchments. Being an entrepreneur by nature I already have a paradigm shift on the classical employee/employer model, therefore when one of my sisters was lamenting about getting another job, I commented that maybe she needs to forget about “getting another job if she gets laid-off” as we are moving to a world where we are all migrant workers, so she should thing of repositioning herself as a migrant worker! What an uproar it raise. Rebellious L quickly interjected that she in no way is a migrant worker! To her, “migrant workers” are those people portrayed by the media jumping the fence, toiling in the commercial farms of America, and with no health insurance! M gave me her “here we go again” look, then smiled as she tried to explain to L that in actuality I was right given the context of my definition of the metaphor (M and I have had this conversation before). So I explained to L that that when you take the expression out of the conventional meanings or label that media gatekeepers we listen to have attached to it, actually we are all becoming migrant workers. M then asked L to consider the concept independent of the negative mainstream media connotations and labels. L shook her head vehemently, repeating that she was NOT a “migrant worker”, then adding “I live in Florida and I know migrant workers!” K on the other hand was sitting watching us calmly one by one enjoying the unfolding debate drama, and reflecting on her position on the issue before she answered – she always weights her position on things before she comments.
Ironically L, who happens to be an untenured contract Professor, symbolizes the typical, new era professional migrant worker I was referring to! I pointed this out to her further explaining that it not a question of geography where the migrant workers we know of works, moving from one field to another. But then again, I retracted, the only difference in geography is being in an office, but we are all moving from employer to employer without guarantees of eternal job security till retirement or at best some long term permanence! I have accepted my fate of the new world order – and frankly, I also do not want to be an employer’s dependent anymore. For a moment, I thought I sounded like a republican, but God forbid!
As usual L and I being academicians, love debating these heavy duty intellectual conversations so the heat of the debate was now left between us. Still she objected. Not so much that the reasoning did not make sense but the idea of looking at her occupational circumstances as a migrant worker offended her prestigious status as an educated professional. I objected to her reasoning and pointed out that were all migrant workers already. The fact that she was not a tenured Professor working from contract to contract each semester; I was a contracted Director working in small business economic development, K was already self employed and M was looking to change into another career from the one she has been for the last 20 years, WE represented the classic definition of the new professional migrant worker. Thus we were!. Just because we had professional positions, did not mean that we were not migrant worker! We were all selling our intellectual properties to the highest bidder with no guarantees of longevity in these employment capacities! Our contract could be terminated at any time, and we would be all hitting the pavement looking for the next contract. I noted to L that we all have three things to sell – our minds, our physical labor or our bodies. At this point K – who was enjoying the conversation with engaged amusement -retorted that she would sell everything else before she sells her body! We all agree on this one – acknowledging that it was the oldest business model ever! By this time we were jumping out of our sits with excitement of the debate. Heck the migrant worker, despite the toil and hardship of their working environment, because they are selling their physical labor, they were better off than most of us
In the meantime L was tallying her employment fringe benefits and above all else valuing her health benefits the most. On the other hand, I urged L to take a pause and think about it – what’s making us all sick these days? The stress of our stressful jobs! I encourage L to imagine a day when you work when you want to work because you live within your mean, without the con-games of the mortgage industry (which as it turns out we all bought into and as a result have them hanging around our necks), no real estate taxes, no home depot home improvement escapades, or the need for shaving off chunks of our hard earned income on credit card interests and payments incurred when the economy was in a bumper harvest, and vacation when you needed to vacation – that’s the life of a migrant worker! They work seasonally, accumulate their minimum wage and take time off during low seasons! That’s having ownership of your time, that’s ultimate freedom. That’s the future. At this point L took a pause, then reflected and finally conceded that indeed despite all her interesting exotic vacations the year before to all the unusual places of the world most of just dream about, the stress level of her college job instantly wipe off her rest the moment she got back to her job! We all laughed. Still I could see she was making her mental calculus about the cost/benefits of her current professorial occupation and having difficulty equating it to the image of a migrant worker.
As I was leaving to go home at 1am, she chided at me laughing then said “Damn, you now I am going to be thinking of myself as a migrant worker on my flight home….you gave me a new appreciation!” We burst out laughing as we hugged goodbye!
Copyright @ May 5 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro (DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.
Well said
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