Farmworkers and Food: The Injustices Migrant Workers Face While Sustaining a Nation by Sarah Mejia
Food is a staple of everyday life: it is a tool for health, a cultural outlet, and an opportunity for social connection. This intricate relationship means that thinking about where food comes from and specifically who harvests it is an important topic, but one that is generally disregarded. True social consciousness should consider how food practices that enrich the health of one demographic may be detrimental to another. Specifically, the habits of consumers can reinforce the negative working conditions of migrant farm workers who harvest the food that is readily available to the general population. Labor violations against migrant workers in U.S. farms began with the Bracero Program in 1942. As a response to labor shortages in the agricultural industry, the U.S. and Mexico created an agreement to provide seasonal employment to Mexicans. The Bracero Program lasted over two decades before it was shut down as a result of unjust labor practices and rising political tensions due to racism. In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) which made it illegal for U.S. employers to knowingly hire undocumented migrants. This act, however, did not end the need for cheap labor: American employers utilized the IRCA to exploit undocumented workers, knowing that they would take low paying jobs out of necessity. In a study conducted by Princeton University, researchers found that “undocumented
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migrants earn 20 percent less, on average, than legal immigrants, while temporary legal workers earn around 13 percent less.“ Additionally, employers began hiding their hiring practices by subcontracting undocumented workers. This system allowed for plausible deniability of illegal hiring practices and further cut undocumented worker’s wages in order to compensate the subcontractor. Seeing that the IRCA was not curving any hiring practices, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90) which legalized the use of foreign labor without granting permanent citizenship. Under IMMACT90, immigrants working in the agricultural sector are issued H-2A visas under the following conditions: work is temporary and the worker will return to their country of origin when the visa expires. Moreover, the H-2A visa may be extended up to three years, at which point the migrant must reside outside of the U.S. for three months before returning on a new one. Since the H-2A visa is dependent on the employer’s willingness to keep the worker and extend their stay, employers hold all of the power. This fearbased power dynamic means that many labor violations (such as sexual harassment, unpaid overtime, dangerous working conditions, reduced wages, etc.) go undocumented due to the threat of deportation.
