Relocation: Workers' gains and losses in interregional migration.

Abstract

Following an automobile plant closing in the Midwest in 1981, several hundred high seniority autoworkers were relocated to a plant in a rapidly growing Deep South community. Two years later, intensive interviews were held with 32 relocated workers. The sample was made up of approximately equal numbers of men and women, Black and white workers of various ages and family makeup. All had southern origins, their families having migrated to the Midwest for factory jobs between 1940 and 1960. Knowledge of the social consequences of worker relocation is meager. Past research has usually assumed a rural to urban flow, whereas a common form of current labor migration is from older urban areas to smaller cities in the South and West. The grounded theory method of data collection and analysis was employed because of that dirth of information. Data were gathered and analyzed on three stages: lives before the plant closing; the plant closing and the relocation process; lives in the receiving community two years later. The workers' words provide a rich description of their experience. As background, the origin community in the Midwest and the receiving community in the South are profiled. Some policy and program strategies are outlined. Some theoretical findings. Life stage and readiness for change are major factors in decision making and adaptation. Moving work groups together is an important support for all stages. Black relocating workers are more mutually supportive than white workers, establishing a "relocation community." The receiving community's behavior toward the newcomers is critical for ultimate assimilation. There is built-in ongoing conflict in plants when high seniority relocated workers are perceived as displacing local workers, but in the larger community newcomers are well treated. Northern Black workers are not welcomed into southern Black communities unless there are kinship, religious, or marriage ties. Nevertheless, most Black workers feel they have gained economically and socially in modern southern communities. White workers can achieve acceptance, but there is pressure to modify their "Yankee" behavior. Important aspects of workers' lives will change, but two years after relocation many workers families welcome the changes and have made successful adjustments.