Mexican Seasonal Migrant Workers Summary

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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

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