The United States is one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters.
With such a lucrative, and heavily subsidized industry, farms require massive amounts of
labor to plant, grow, harvest, grade, pack, and ship the tons of food produced.
But, as the overall standard of life has gone up in the United States, its citizens have
become increasingly reticent to work in the fields for little pay.
So who is doing the work?
Well, that’s where migrant workers come in.
Starting around World War II, the US implemented the Bracero program, which authorized the
importation of nearly five million temporary workers from Mexico to support the agriculture
industry.
Since then, the heavy flow of migrant workers has kept US farms viable, although at a severe
cost to the workers themselves.
Every year as many as 3 million people come to the US, fleeing an unstable economic and
political situation back home.
Although conditions may be better, migrant work is characterized by low pay, and limited
to no benefits.
Most migrant workers are under the age of thirty, and work in California, Texas, Washington,
Florida, Oregon, and North Carolina.
About 75% of migrants come from Mexico and more than half are undocumented.
This creates a situation where fear of deportation prevents migrants from improving their work
conditions.
Famed labor rights activist, Cesar Chavez made a name championing this struggle.
Many countries are party to a United Nations convention, which reaffirms the human rights
of migrant workers and their families.
However, as one of the biggest consumers of foreign labor, the US has avoided ratifying
the convention.
The issue of undocumented workers in the United States has raised the ire of anti-immigration
activists.
But the often repeated idea that quote “they’re taking our jobs”, has repeatedly been disproven.
In fact, when Georgia passed an anti-immigration bill forcing thousands of workers to flee
the state, their agricultural sector nearly collapsed, potentially losing as much as a
billion dollars.
The largest wave of immigration occurred during the country’s lowest rate of unemployment,
and studies have shown immigration actually creates more jobs and strengthens the economy.
The most effective solutions are based in labor rights reform, and guaranteeing higher
wages and work conditions.
Because without migrant workers making up the backbone of the agricultural industry,
America has little chance of maintaining it’s agro-dominance.
America’s struggle with migrant workers is nothing new.
To learn how, in the Great Depression, images of the poor were once used as propaganda,
check out this fascinating video from Seeker Stories.
Check out that full video with the link in the description below.
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