About--News & Issues, N.Y., October 4, 2006

About -- News & Issues, N.Y.
October 4, 2006
http://immigration.about.com/b/a/155468.htm

Immigration Issues
From Jennifer & Peter Wipf,
Your Guide to Immigration Issues.

Migrant Farm Workers: What are they? Who are they?

Driving to San Francisco from Los Angeles once, a friend and I saw fields full of fruit pickers along Interstate 5, and whispered in astonishment to each other "Are those... migrant workers?" To us, they were people seen only in documentaries, or mentioned in books. Indeed, migrant workers live on the periphery of society. We have all heard of them, but most of us do not come in contact with them. Who are these people and where do they come from?
Many migrant workers travel back and forth from their homelands to work in the U.S. on a seasonal basis. Others are illegal immigrants permanently in the U.S.. Some are legal immigrants. Few are American-born - other than the children, who often work alongside their parents.
Cornell University offers a unique course devoted to migrant farm labor in the Americas. There is not much data on migrant farm workers available. They "are treated as second-class citizens. They're always treated as exceptions to labor laws,'' according to Vernon Briggs, professor for industrial and labor relations. Part of the program involves students teaching English to the mostly-Mexican laborers who don't speak the language. Current estimates put the number of hired farm laborers at around 2 million, possibly more. About 47,000 live and work in the state of New York, many of them laboring on farms surrounding the Cornell campus.

For Cornell students, this is a unique opportunity to learn about topics like agricultural economics and statistics, the North American Free Trade Agreement, human rights and more. To read about the current debates involving migrant workers, read our article on the migrant worker program and Bush's proposed guest worker program. To learn more about the Cornell course, read the The New York Times article. -- Jennifer Wipf