Religion as labor control: Corporate chaplaincy and the privatization of risk under H-2A
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines employer-endorsed chaplaincy as a technology of labor control within the U.S. H-2A agricultural visa regime. Drawing on 38 Facebook Live pastoral talks (2021–2025) and interviews with corporate chaplains, it shows how structural vulnerability is converted into moral obligation. Chaplains frame the visa as a blessing tethered to responsibility at work and in employer housing; inculcate discipline and foresight as inner virtues of savings, bodily restraint, and plan-keeping; and recast precarity as a matter of individual prudence rather than program design. Situating these practices within political economy, the article traces how moral vocabularies align with employer command over recruitment, housing, and return, thereby lowering monitoring costs and stabilizing output in a replaceable labor regime. Digital delivery extends this governance across camps and seasons. Conceptually, the article specifies how religious care does organizational work: it normalizes insecurity, privatizes risk onto workers and households, and narrows the horizon of remedy to personal thrift and family stewardship. It concludes by identifying points of leverage to shift risk back onto firms and the state, including inter-employer portability, caps and enforcement on recruitment fees and debt, enforceable housing standards, paid travel and rest days, and protections for refusing unsafe work.
Source: Critical Sociology
Author: Laura Beth Bugg
Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W7129020978