disadvantages of Migrant Workers
New Deal programs like the Agriculture Adjustment Act tried to raise the price of crops by lowering production meaning the government paid farm owners to destroy a part of their crops in order to boost the economy. This left many farmers with out an opportunity to work.The federal government did not see it as a waste even though many families throughout the nation suffered from hunger.
One group of people disadvantaged by this plan are migrant farm workers. Migrant farmers constantly move from farm to farm, often state to state, season by season, all in hope to find work on fields. They lived in poor conditions either in camps or dormitory houses provided by the farm owner. Since many people were unemployed they began to search jobs in migrant farming raising the difficulty to land these labor intensive jobs and forcing them to agree to work for less money. In Paul S. Taylor’s article "Migratory Farm Labor in the United States", he reports that the “average annual earnings of 775 migrant families, most of which received between $300 and $400 in 1930, [decreased] between $100 and $200 in 1935”. This decrese in pay is drastic for migrant families since they had to account for travel costs along with the costs of providing for their families. He also notes that “migrants, like other farm workers, are left relatively unprotected by social-security legislation”, meaning they continuously had to work without the assurance of retirement (4).
Too often the concerns of migrant workers were unheard in the federal government when developing new relief programs. Writer Carey McWilliams, in Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labor in the United States, “they are the least noticeable of people and the most difficult to locate…they are forced, by circumstance, to be inconspicuous”. Their constant moving, denies them the opportunity to organize as a group to protest unfair conditions,wages,and housing, that industrial workers could’ve done more easily in their work place (5).
One group of people disadvantaged by this plan are migrant farm workers. Migrant farmers constantly move from farm to farm, often state to state, season by season, all in hope to find work on fields. They lived in poor conditions either in camps or dormitory houses provided by the farm owner. Since many people were unemployed they began to search jobs in migrant farming raising the difficulty to land these labor intensive jobs and forcing them to agree to work for less money. In Paul S. Taylor’s article "Migratory Farm Labor in the United States", he reports that the “average annual earnings of 775 migrant families, most of which received between $300 and $400 in 1930, [decreased] between $100 and $200 in 1935”. This decrese in pay is drastic for migrant families since they had to account for travel costs along with the costs of providing for their families. He also notes that “migrants, like other farm workers, are left relatively unprotected by social-security legislation”, meaning they continuously had to work without the assurance of retirement (4).
Too often the concerns of migrant workers were unheard in the federal government when developing new relief programs. Writer Carey McWilliams, in Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labor in the United States, “they are the least noticeable of people and the most difficult to locate…they are forced, by circumstance, to be inconspicuous”. Their constant moving, denies them the opportunity to organize as a group to protest unfair conditions,wages,and housing, that industrial workers could’ve done more easily in their work place (5).
