Saket Soni on the People Who Make Disaster Recovery Possible

Climate One

Earth Sciences, News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science

4.7 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Who cleans up and rebuilds our communities after floods, fires, and hurricanes? COVID redefined America's definition of “essential workers,” but many who help communities recover from climate disasters remain underpaid and overlooked. In 2006, labor organizer Saket Soni got an anonymous call from an Indian migrant worker in Mississippi who had scraped together $20,000 to apply for the “opportunity” to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina. The caller was only one of hundreds lured into Gulf Coast labor camps, surrounded by barbed wire, and watched by armed guards. Since then, the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters has only increased – and disaster recovery has become big business. How are the lives of people displaced by disasters intertwined with those helping to rebuild? Guests: Saket Soni, Founder and Director, Resilience Force Daniel Castellanos, Director Of Workforce Engagement, Resilience Force For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Olivia Culpo here to tell you all about the launch of the new Abercrombie spring denim collection,
0:05.5	made the way denim should feel. Their denim has always been a staple in my wardrobe and has a wide range of fits,
0:11.4	styles, and washes. Every jean is available in both their classic fit and viral curve love.
0:17.5	Shop in the app, online, and in stores.
0:34.2	This is Climate One. I'm Greg Dalton. Unjust labor has been an ugly part of the American economy since the nation's earliest days. Here we are again facing the oldest of problems, captive workers coming to rebuild infrastructure
0:44.1	after a climate disaster.
0:45.9	Much of that labor is done by immigrants from other countries swindled into work agreements
0:50.7	filled with false promises, including getting legal status.
0:54.7	A green card for a migrant worker is the holy grail of immigration, right? But it's not for
1:01.3	people who are welders and pipe fitters who build refineries, who build infrastructure.
1:06.1	Yet these are the people doing the hard work of cleaning up as climate fuel disasters follow one after another.
1:13.1	I came to understand these workers as the white blood cells of the climate crisis. Each time
1:18.4	there was injury, these were the workers who arrived to heal. Socket Sony on the people who make
1:23.6	disaster recovery possible next on Climate One.
1:36.4	As human-driven climate change amplifies the frequency and potency of natural disasters,
1:41.0	we are increasingly dependent on one group of workers who live in the shadows,
1:45.0	the migrant workforce that arrives to clean up and rebuild.
1:51.1	In his book, The Great Escape, Soketsoni tells the personal stories of young men from India who were lured by ads to migrate to America with promises of good salaries. And more importantly,
1:57.7	green cards in exchange for working on disaster recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane
2:02.5	Katrina. The men had to pay up to $20,000 for this opportunity, a common part of the deal for such
2:10.1	migrants. What follows is a chronicle of one of the largest human trafficking cases in modern
2:15.9	American history. While Sony's book focuses on
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