Informal Economy: Personal Experience
In my personal experience, the informal economy has aided me and my parents by allowing us to earn extra income to pay bills and college fees. When I was 14 years old, my parents were both hospitalized, my mom due to a severe case of pneumonia and my father due to having an accident at his job which placed him out of work for 3 months. Through these tragic events, I was forced to find any way possible to bring income to my household which at that moment consisted of me, my two sisters and smaller brother. The challenge was that my age restricted me from having a formal job so I had to work under the table in order to feed and take care of my siblings. My experience led me to mow lawns, work in construction, gardening and through word of mouth
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Since they came from immigrant parents, they experienced a lack of resources. So in order to help out their parents, my friends of ages 12 to 16 started to also participate in the informal economy as handymen, food vendors, babysitters and washing other peoples clothing. “Children who are not privileged by race, class, nation, and gender are simply under more pressure to work for money. The Latino street vendor children and teens are not working for an allowance, or for personal spending money, but to ensure family economic well-being and advancement” (Estrada and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2011). As I have previously mentioned that the United States Government views the informal economy as a criminal act, through my narrative and the experience of many of my friends I can demonstrate that the informal economy for us, and multiple other individuals, is a way to survive. In all of my friends' case, their parents, both mother and father, had a forty hour weekly job, but with what they were earning it just was not enough to pay bills and feed their children. Thus, the only way to make ends meet was to become active participants in the informal economy. Overall, my goal in this project is to find out what experiences have lead Latino and Hispanic individuals or their families to participate in the informal
Since they came from immigrant parents, they experienced a lack of resources. So in order to help out their parents, my friends of ages 12 to 16 started to also participate in the informal economy as handymen, food vendors, babysitters and washing other peoples clothing. “Children who are not privileged by race, class, nation, and gender are simply under more pressure to work for money. The Latino street vendor children and teens are not working for an allowance, or for personal spending money, but to ensure family economic well-being and advancement” (Estrada and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2011). As I have previously mentioned that the United States Government views the informal economy as a criminal act, through my narrative and the experience of many of my friends I can demonstrate that the informal economy for us, and multiple other individuals, is a way to survive. In all of my friends' case, their parents, both mother and father, had a forty hour weekly job, but with what they were earning it just was not enough to pay bills and feed their children. Thus, the only way to make ends meet was to become active participants in the informal economy. Overall, my goal in this project is to find out what experiences have lead Latino and Hispanic individuals or their families to participate in the informal