Displaced Labor Migrants or the “Underclass”

Southern African Americans and Puerto Ricans came to the Philadelphia area as labor migrants in the World War II era. ¹ Employers and government agencies recruited them for food processing work during the war and for farm work after the war. Policy makers emphasized the seasonal nature of the work and expected migrants to return “home” when their labor was no longer needed. Government and industry looked at migrants as low-paid, seasonal laborers, not as permanent community members. But African Americans and Puerto Ricans viewed seasonal migration as a source of income or a stepping stone for permanent settlement. Philadelphia's postwar economy, however, was segmented by race and gender and migrants became clustered in certain sectors of the labor market. Moreover, during the 1970s, they found themselves displaced as the city's economy shifted from manufacturing to professional and other services. By 1990, economic change and residential segregation had created conditions of concentrated poverty for many of the African Americans and Puerto Ricans who made the city their home.