A significant amount of policy and research is based on a definition of the sweatshop that understands it as a worksite in violation of multiple labor and safety laws. Based on an extensive literature review of research on neoliberalism, sweatshops, immigrant labor and immigration law this position paper argues that contemporary changes to the global economy and U.S. immigration policy require a reconceptualization of the U.S. sweatshop. A redefinition would allow policymakers and researchers to consider undocumented workers, farm work, domestic work and workplaces not currently protected by contemporary labor laws to be considered as potential locations of a new kind of U.S. sweatshop. A broader conception of the sweatshop would allow for policy solutions more accurately tailored to the problem with the potential for a more extensive impact
