Migrant farmworkers are among the poorest and most disadvantaged groups in the agricultural society of the United States. In terms of income, housing, education and health they are more similar to the people of many developing countries than they are to most middle class Americans. Their ceaseless migration from Florida to Maine, from Texas to Minnesota, from California to the state of Washington went unnoticed. For the last fifteen years a variety of programs to alleviate many problems which beset farmworkers have been tried with various degrees of success in all parts of the country where agriculture demands their labor. Put one problem which has constantly hampered the design and operation of farmworker programs has been the lack of good empirical data.
The recent trends and current patterns of the United States agricultural employment system are summarized as follows (USDA, 1982).
Nearly 3 million people do hired farmwork sometime during the year.
One-third of all U. S. farms employ hired labor.
Most labor is hired by the largest farms. Less than 2 percent of all farms account for more than one-third of all labor expenditures.
Hired labor use is concentrated primarily in certain regions.
Migrants comprise only about 8 percent of the total hired farmwork force, and there only about half as many of them as a decade ago. Although their numbers are small, they face unique problems not encountered by persons commuting daily to seasonal agricultural jobs from established homes.
Texas continues to be the home base for the lagest group of migrant farmworkers serving American agriculture. Each year, operators of farms depend upon these nameless and faceless people to perform the difficult tasks of agricultural work. In Texas, these farmworkers are mostly Mexican Americans (95%) who are poor, undereducated, ill-housed, poorly nourished, and do not have the skill to take advantage of other employment opportunities.
According to the 1975 Migrant Population Survey, there are 85, 600 migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Migrant farmworkers in Texas fall in several categories which are not mutually exclusive. There are interstate and intrastate migrant farmworkers. Interstate migrants leave the state to work, while intrastate migrants work in different areas within the state.
The counties of Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy or Starr have a large population of farmworker labor force. These counties are called Lower Rio Grande Valley or simply Valley. Agriculture is important in the Valley; citrus fruit, cotton, vegetable, sorghum, etc. The Valley is a focal point of social, political, legal and economic conditions that have attracted national and even international attention. For a long time, there poured a stream of illegal Mexican migrants into this area. Some of these migrants moved on northward to other parts of Texas and other states. Most of them stayed for brief periods only and then recrossed the river to return their homes and families in Mexico. Illegal immigrants are called “Wetback.” At the present day a great number of the undocumented Mexican enter to Texas. It is possible to take the view that about 15 percent of these people are to be migrant farmworkers (by Dr. S. Weintraub).
This note concludes that the situation of Texas and the agricultural characteristic of the United States are responsible of the migrants farmworkers.
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