Migrant Workers in the U.S.

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During the 20th century, there was an urgent need for migrant workers in Florida due to several factors. Many migrant workers, my family, and myself included saw better ways of life in Florida.

The term migrant worker is used to refer to individuals who enter The United States or another country legally or illegally as temporary or seasonal workers, typically in agriculture such as pineapple farmers, or in semi-skilled or unskilled industries such as hotel maids or waiters.

My name is John O. Brown and there were several factors that led up to the reason of my migration. These factors led to the migrations of my family and others as well. The main reason for my migration was to seek better living conditions. “In Watlings Island, where I came from the condition of the people is deplorable. We lived a sort of hand to mouth existence, with apparently no power to better our position. We work hard - some of us have to walk a distance of 20 miles a day in going to and from our fields – others go a like distance in boats across the lakes. Should winter crops fail, starvation is almost certain to follow. Something must be done to alter this state of affairs, but it is difficult to find a remedy. The land is fertile and produces considerable quantities of corn, potatoes, beans, oranges, etc., horses, cattle and sheep are reared. A man with a little capital could make good business here,” according to Remembering the Contract by Tracey L. Thompson. My cousin Calvin came from Long Island and he told me “Only a small portion of the populace was in a position to supply the necessities required for a satisfactory existence. The only industry was peasant farming. The people gathered what they could reap from the fields and had to subsist o...

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...and loss from emigration in The Bahamas, during 1901-1921.”

Based on factors mentioned above there were better opportunities afforded to my family and I in Florida, where we saw better ways of life. I am glad that I migrated to Florida to find work; it had truly allowed me to achieve things I would have never been able to if I had stayed in the Bahamas. I was able to support my family financially and give them things that they deserved. Even though I had some challenges to my body and mind caused from working, it helped me. I was able to save enough money from my earnings to lay the foundations of a financially more secure life. “This made a one hundred and fifty degree turn in my life. I’m sure – that if I was in the Bahamas and time period that I was in, I wouldn’t have nothing to compare with what I have now.” As stated in Remembering the Contract by Tracey L.

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