migrant worker

Examples of migrant worker in the following topics:

• Tenants, Sharecroppers, and Migrants

  • The transforming of the West in the late nineteenth century relied on various types of laborers–-tenants, sharecroppers, and migrants.
  • Migrant workers in the United States have come from many different sources, and have been subject to different work experiences .
  • The experiences of migrant laborers in agriculture during this period varied.
  • However, the use of Mexican migrant laborers declined during the Great Depression, when internal migrant workers from Dust Bowl states moved west to California, taking jobs normally filled by Mexican migrants.
  • Examine the experience of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers in the late nineteenth century

• Dust Bowl Migrants

  • Owning no land, many displaced people became migrant workers, traveling from farm to farm to pick fruit and other crops at starvation wages .
  • Ben Reddick, a free-lance journalist and later publisher of the Paso Robles Daily Press, is credited with first using the term Oakie, in the mid-1930s, to identify migrant farm workers.
  • Many West Coast residents and some politically motivated writers used "Okie" to disparage these poor, white (including those of mixed American Indian ancestry, the largest tribal group being Cherokees), migrant workers and their families.
  • Author John Steinbeck later wrote The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Of Mice and Men, about these migrant workers and their struggles.
  • The music and writings of Woody Guthrie were also inspired by the migrant workers and the Dust Bowl.

• The Diversity of the West

  • As a result, many Hispanics became permanent migrant workers, seeking seasonal employment in farming, mining, ranching, and the railroads.
  • Migrant workers in the United States have come from many different sources, and have been subject to different work experiences.
  • The experiences of migrant laborers in agriculture during this period varied.
  • On the other hand, workers from Catholic countries, such as Ireland and Germany, were subject to a number of prejudices.
  • However, the use of Mexican migrant laborers declined during the Great Depression, when internal migrant workers from Dust Bowl states moved west to California, taking jobs normally filled by Mexican migrants.

• The Human Toll

  • There were two kinds of migrant workers: seasonal urban dwellers and permanent migrants who followed crops from one place to another in order to make a living.
  • Because of their exclusion from federal and state legislation that protected workers against exploitation and unfair labor practices, migrant workers earned lower wages than other farm laborers.
  • The music and writings of Woody Guthrie were also inspired by migrant workers and the Dust Bowl.
  • , shows a family of migrant workers from Missouri stuck on the side of the road near Tracy, California.
  • The 1936 image became synonymous with the plight of migrant farm workers during the Depression.

• Civil Rights of Immigrants

  • Paying migrant farm workers less than minimum wage is a civil rights violation carried out against a primarily immigrant population.
  • The United Farm Workers union, led by Cesar Chavez, directly addressed this illegal exploitation of workers.
  • The Immigration and Nationality Act reversed laws that limited the number of immigrants who could enter from any given country, and instead put in place policies that encouraged the immigration of skilled workers and family members of U.S. citizens.
  • Central issues include the low enforcement of labor laws with regards to immigrant workers who are subject to dangerous or exploitative conditions; lack of due process in the courts for residents who entered the country illegally; debates about whether languages other than English should be taught in public schools and used in government documents; and debates about whether children who entered the country illegally can be prosecuted and deported.
  • Mexican-American immigrants have organized many political demonstrations to protest the exploitation of workers, discrimination in education and employment, and heavy-handed criminal justice enforcement against illegal immigrants.

• Latino Rights

  • The highest-profile struggle of the Mexican American civil rights movement was the fight that Caesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta waged in the fields of California to organize migrant farm workers.
  • In 1962, Chavez and Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).
  • Workers organized by the NFWA also went on strike, and the two organizations merged to form the United Farm Workers.
  • The strike ended in 1970 when California farmers recognized the right of farm workers to unionize.
  • However, the farm workers did not gain all they sought, and the larger struggle did not end.

• Migration

  • Specific types of migrants can include colonizers (who forcefully enter into a country or territory), refugees (who are forced to flee their country), and temporary migrants (who travel to a new place temporarily, such as business travelers, tourists, or seasonal farm workers).
  • Seasonal agricultural migrants follow crop cycles, moving from place to place to plant or harvest crops.
  • Some countries, including the United States, allow special permits for seasonal agricultural workers to temporarily work in the country without granting full citizenship rights.
  • In the early twentieth century, transnational labor migration reached a peak of three million migrants per year.
  • According to the new economics theory, migration flows and patterns cannot be explained solely at the level of individual workers and their economic incentives.

• Elements of economic globalization

  • Migration: Whether it is physicians who emigrate from India and Pakistan to Great Britain or seasonal farm workers emigrating from Mexico to the United States, labor is increasingly mobile.
  • Migration can benefit developing economies when migrants who acquired education and know-how abroad return home to establish new enterprises.
  • However, migration can also hurt the economy through "brain drain", the loss of skilled workers who are essential for economic growth (Stiglitz, 2003).

• The Great Migration and the "Promised Land"

  • There was no government assistance, but northern industries often recruited African American workers.
  • While the Great Migration helped educated African Americans obtain jobs, the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination.
  • After the Great Depression, more advances occurred as workers in the steel and meatpacking industries were organized into labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Populations increased so rapidly among both African American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in many major cities.
  • Migrants often encountered residential discrimination, in which white homeowners and realtors prevented migrants from purchasing homes or renting apartments in white neighborhoods.

• Industrial Cities

  • Upton Sinclair's The Jungle chronicles the dangerous living conditions endured by immigrant factory workers in the early-1900s, a period of rapid urbanization in the U.S.
  • The growth of modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanization and the rise of new, great cities, first in Europe, and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas.
  • Living conditions during the Industrial Revolution varied from the splendor of the homes of the wealthy to the squalor of the workers.