Mexican Seasonal Migrant Workers and American Exploitation Seasonal migrant workers, who are they? In this case, “Mexican Seasonal Migrant Workers” are Mexican migrants who come to America to find jobs in order to support their families back to where they came from in Mexico. Mexican Seasonal Migrants come to the US with either a temporary visa, or enter the US illegally looking for work. Jessie Kratz, a specialist in American History, in her article, explores the beginning of such circumstances, from the Mexican Farm Labor Program (Bracero Program) in 1942 to 1964. The Bracero Program was permitted by the US government that allowed millions of Mexican men to work in the US for usually 6 months, allowing Mexican migrants to temporarily find …show more content…
This marked the end of an exploitative relationship between the Mexican people and America. The Bracero Program ended on December 31, 1964. Although the Bracero Program was put to a stop, the influx of Mexican migrants did not. Mexican families still depend on wages in the US to pay and help their family with something called “remittances.” According to Salvador Rivera, a journalist that specializes in the American border states “More than 96% of the money arriving in Mexico was sent from the United States, primarily from California and Texas.” But with the agricultural market taking a toll if Mexican seasonal migrants no longer came, it would be detrimental to the agricultural market of the US. Thus, the Bracero Program was put to a stop for its unethical and unfair conditions on seasonal Mexican migrant workers; they're still being exploited by farmers and the US government without giving them necessities like health care, fair wages, proper housing, and stable working conditions. Even during and after the Bracero Program of 1942, the …show more content…
For example, their low wages. Seasonal Mexican Migrant workers were paid low wages due to exploitation of the farmers. It is stated, “In 1978, the daily wage for peons, or day laborers, was 80 pesos (approximately S3). 60. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid Yet, because local employment opportunities are almost exclusively restricted to agricultural jobs which are highly seasonal (mainly concentrated around the harvest months of September through December), nonmigrants are seldom able to obtain paid employment for more than a third of the calendar year” (Córdova). The low rates of pay and low amount of money paid to Mexican seasonal migrant workers made it almost impossible for these workers to live in the US and send remittances back to Mexico, especially during the Bracero Program era from 1942 to 1964. They were getting paid 30 to 40 cents per hour, which translates to 5.60 dollars today (Marcel). In the 1950’s the minimum wage was 0.75 cents per hour. That translates to $3.16 today. This means they were missing out on $2.44 per hour. It might not seem detrimental right now, but back
Before the strike for higher wages began, migrant workers worked in very horrible conditions. Men, women, and children would work on these farms for only a dollar an hour. The
Ruben Martinez was fascinated with the tragedy of three brothers who were killed when the truck carrying them and 23 other undocumented migrants across the Mexico – United States border turned over in a high-speed chase with the U.S. Border Patrol. “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail” is a story about crossing and life in the United States.
focuses on the nationalization of the United States Border Patrol during and after World War II. Due to the perceived threat of emigrants from any nation, Border Patrol resources were amplified and law enforcement personnel was diverted toward the Mexican and United States borderlands. With increased patrol of the borderlands, many Mexican migrants were unable to cross the border for seasonal work. This created a shortage of Mexican labor that United States agri-businessmen could not afford. The Bracero Program would serve as a binational program to manage the cross-border migration of Mexican laborers.
The migrants came from the midwest, in search of a job. The foreign workers came from different countries, such as China, Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines. The demand for peon workers was increasing dramatically, foreign workers were just what the farmers needed. The foreign workers were also treated much worse than the migrants. They worked for little pay, but there was not really another way they could get money. The migrants were paid more, possibly because they are foreign born. When foreign workers came to the United States, they had to adapt to the languages, traditions, wages, etc. As for the migrant workers, they were raised in the United States, so they have a better understanding of how to live. Foreign workers had a very poor standard of living and often faced discrimination. In The Harvest Gypsies, the first sentence of the sixth article is, “ The history of California’s importation and treatment of foreign labor is a disgraceful picture of greed and cruelty.” Steinbeck had a strong belief that foreign workers were treated different from migrants, which is true. Another example is when the article talks about how the whites could not compete with the foreign workers anymore. “ Mexicans were imported in large number, and the standard of living they were capable of maintaining depressed the wages for farm labor to a point where the white could not compete.” This quote is saying that the wages and standard of living got so low, that whites gave up on trying to get a job in the fields. Some may say that the migrants and foreign workers were treated very similar, but this is untrue. They both had to live in very poor conditions, but the foreign workers had it much harder than the
More and more health-conscious individuals are scrutinizing the source of the food their family consumes. However, even the most conscientious consumer is not fully aware of the exhaustive efforts and struggle to get a juicy, ripe strawberry or that plump tomato in the middle of winter, even in Florida. These foods are harvested and picked mostly by seasonal and migrant farm workers. Migrant workers hail, in large part, from Mexico and the Caribbean, and their families often travel with them. Migrant farm workers must endure challenging conditions so that Americans can have the beautiful selection of berries, tomatoes, and other fresh foods often found at places like a farmer’s market or a traditional super market. Seasonal and migrant farm workers suffer a variety of health problems as a result of their constant exposure to stress, the elements, and chemicals such as pesticides. They are paid minimal wages and are expected to work long hours of strenuous labor for pennies on the dollar per piece or per hour. The migrant families are expected to live in substandard quarters and transported to various work sites in unsafe transportation. The fresh fruits and vegetables consumers purchase with little thought reach supermarkets at a cost that is not reflected in the retail price. This cost is ultimately absorbed by farm workers in Florida and other areas throughout the country, who are among the poorest of American workers.
During World War II, the United States was in dire need of Mexico and its laborers. The Americans were at war and the labor was needed to supply the soldiers with food as well as to help keep the countries’ agriculture business going. As well, the Mexican government failed to provide many Mexican peasants who were skilled workers with the resources they needed to improve their lives following the Mexican Revolution of 1910. With this being said, by the late 1930’s, many crops in Mexico were insufficient, making those skilled workers look elsewhere for jobs. On August 4th, 1942, the United States and Mexico negotiated a temporary contract to allow Mexican guest workers into the United States. These agricultural and railroad labor contracts were intended to be short-term and terminated once World War II was over. However, after involving over 4.5 million people, it can be said that the longstanding effects of this program contributed to today’s illegal immigration from Mexico. By analyzing the different components involved with The Bracero Program, there will be a deeper understanding to how this intended short-term legal contract
Migrant workers have the stereotype of hard workers that are desperate for money. They are usually not very well educated. Most of them were strong but some weren't. Take Lennie and George for example. George wasn't very strong but was smart and Lennie was strong but dumb as a fence post. Like Lennie and George, all migrant workers wanted their own land to farm. They had few possessions and were independent. The workers liked to cuss a lot, get drunk on Friday nights, and were usually very poor.
The United States has a long history of employing laborers from other countries. In 1850, Before Mexicans were prevalent; Chinese workers were hired in California to tend the land. After the Chinese Exclusion Act the Japanese workers were hired (Espinosa). Amid 1850 and 1890 the growth of Mexican immigrants began to increase and Mexican laborers were present in the agricultural industry, mining industry, and railroad (Espinsoa). The United States continued to utilize legal migrant workers for many years following and to this day there are laws allowing for legal migrant workers through the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act or MSPA (United States Department of Labor).
The drive to keep jobs out of the hands of Mexicans had the highly undesirable result of forcing many families to depend on welfare to survive. Many Mexicans were forced to leave and rounded up by immigration officials, while others were intimidated by immigration practices and left voluntarily. While some left willingly because of the poor economic outlook, hoping things would be better in Mexico, others were deported even if they had come to the United States legally. One reporter called for an investigation of immigr...
As people immigrated to the United States, legally and illegally, particularly Hispanic workers, they began to look for jobs to provide for their families. They took jobs that Americans did not want: they accepted the low-paying, physically-demanding, and temporal agriculture jobs. Since many did not speak English and were uneducated, some even illiterate, they were easy targets for farm owners to exploit. Immigrant workers were often not paid, had low wages, and because of such conditions, some even died. In addition, they also lived and worked in appalling conditions, some workplaces did not even have suitab...
The Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community formed in Southern California in the 20th century because of two factors that came together: farming emphasized by migrations like the Okie farmers from the East and Mexicans “imported” to the U.S. because of the need for cheap labor as a replacement of Americans during World War II. The migrant labor group formed after an already similar group in the U.S had been established in California, the American farm workers from the East, known as the Okies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused the movement of the Okies to the West and was followed by the transition from American dominant farm labor to Mexican migrant labor. The Okies reinforced farming in California through the skills they took with them, significant to the time period that Mexicans arrived to California in greater numbers. However, the community was heightened by World War II from 1939 to 1945, which brought in immigrants to replace Americans that left to fight in the battlefields. Robin A. Fanslow, archivist at the Library of Congress, argues that because of World War II, “those who were left behind took advantage of the job opportunities that had become available in [the] West Coast” (Fanslow). Although some Mexican migrants already lived in the U.S prior to this event, a vast majority arrived at the fields of California specifically to work as farmers through the Bracero Program, created because of the Second World War. Why the Second World War and not the First World War? WWII urgently demanded labor and Mexico was the United States’ closest resource. Although WWI also caused the U.S. to have a shortage of labor; at the time, other minorities dominated, like the Chinese and Japanese.
Starting in the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II, the immigration policy in the United States experienced dramatic changes that altered the pace of immigration. High rates of immigration sparked adverse emotions and encouraged restrictive legislation and numerous bills in Congress advocated the suspension of immigration and the deportation of non-Americans (Wisconsin Historical Society). Mexican American history was shaped by several bills in Congress and efforts to deport all non-Americans from the United States. The United States was home to several Spanish-origin groups, prior to the Declaration of Independence. The term “Mexican American” was a label used to describe a number of Hispanic American groups that were diverse and distinct from each other (Healey). Between 1910 and 1930, Mexican’s immigrated to the Southwest regions of the United States and began to work as low paid, unskilled physical laborers. Mexican immigrants took jobs as migratory laborers or seasonal workers in mines or on commercial farms and ranches. These jobs resulted in isolation and physical immobility with little opportunity for economic success (Mitz). Mexican Americans were not alone in their struggle to adapt to mainstream America and fight racial discrimination in education, jobs, wages and politics.
Weigel, M. M. and R. X. Armijos (2011). "Exploratory Study of the Occupational Health and Health-Seeking of Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers on the U.S.-Mexico Border." J Immigr Minor Health.
The Mexican government is known to be corrupt- reinforcement coming from the people interviewed in the film. Various federalist and centralist politicians in the Mexican history have been known to bribe for votes, made apparent by the film to occur even at the local level with municipal presidents. Contributing to the push factor to the U.S., corrupt government bodies push the natives towards leaving by providing no benefits that were promised, such as “lotteries” for those who fill out documentation proving that welfare was properly disbursed when no welfare was given. It was said that the Mexican people depend more on their relatives in the United States than they do on the government (e.g. money sent back to fund patron saints and festivals or just for family support). This is an amazing example given by the film about exploitation- a common occurrence in the political history of
2.Merton E. Hill, " The Development of an Americanization Program" The Survey 66, no.3 (May 1931). In Carlos E. Cortes, ed., Aspects of the Mexican- American Experience(New York:Arno Press, 1976), pp. 10, 102-111.