A study published this week in the journal Anthropology of Work Review and conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver uncovered the widespread use of ‘ghost workers’ - undocumented migrant workers using borrowed papers who are invisible to the state. The research shed light on how employing ‘ghost workers’ - who are themselves held responsible for using false documentation if caught - benefits employers, and is carried out with their full cooperation, or even insisted upon in some cases.

University of Colorado Denver anthropologist Sarah Horton found employers in agricultural industries are taking advantage of migrants' inability to work legally by making their employment contingent upon working under the false or borrowed identity documents, often provided by the employers themselves. Many employees who don't have legal status in the US are hired for farm work using the legal documentation of their friends or family.

Farm workers call this practice, which essentially renders them invisible to the state and federal governments, "working as a ghost.” This carries a range of issues for workers’ protection; Horton’s investigation, based on over 10 years of interviews and fieldwork with migrant farm workers in California's Central Valley, a major breadbasket region, revealed that by providing workers with borrowed documents, many agribusiness companies disguise their employment of undocumented immigrants from authorities, hide the use of child labour, and suppress worker's compensation claims.

This kind of ‘identity theft’ among migrant workers made news in the US recently when a federal appeals court ruled that law enforcement can continue to prosecute undocumented immigrants for working with forged, loaned, or stolen documents. However, Horton’s research highlighted the role of employers in this process, as they engage in what she calls "identity masking."

In addition to using identity masking to avoid government scrutiny or immigration raids, Horton said employers frequently use the practice to sidestep child labour laws; in California, children under 18 are legally ineligible to work more than eight hours a day or 48 hours a week, yet during the summer harvest season, workers routinely work up to 70 hours a week. In order to disguise the violation of state child labour laws, labour supervisors often require that minors work under the valid documents of adults.

Unscrupulous employers also use the practice to violate wage legislation. In California, farm workers are legally entitled to overtime once they work in excess of 10 hours a day, 60 hours a week. To avoid paying their workers overtime, some company supervisors require that all employees work under the identity documents of others on Sunday or lose that day of work.

Workers legally allowed to work in California can see a benefit from lending out documents, as the wages earned by other workers using their papers will augment their Social Security and unemployment payments. In exchange for loaning their documents to workers, the friends and family members of labour supervisors or employers often receive a kick-back.

Prof Horton said that, though the complex social dynamics on the ground that lead to the establishment of ‘ghost workers’ are often overlooked, her research has shed light on the complicity of employers in the process. The Anthropology professor said, ”Even as undocumented migrants may continue to be arrested for 'identity theft' in states like Arizona, my research illustrates the role of employers in providing workers with invented and loaned documents.

”It suggests that judges must carefully scrutinize any charges levied against undocumented migrants for working loaned documents, as employers may have more to gain from this practice than workers do."