E-grāmata: Bracero 2.0: Mexican Workers in North American Agriculture

"The three chapters of Part 1 explain the evolution and current status of hired farm labor in Canada, Mexico, and the US. Each country's history is different, but the share of employment in agriculture fell sharply in all three countries during the 20th century, especially after WWII. Many of Canada's immigrants in the late 19th century were Eastern Europeans, many of whom became farmers in Canada's western prairies after the completion of Canada's transcontinental railroad in 1885. Eastern European immigrants to the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s, by contrast, mostly filled factory jobs in eastern and midwestern cities because Black sharecroppers were seasonal farm workers in the south and Chinese, Japanese, and other Asians in the west. Canada's climate and geography favored family-sized grain and livestock operations, while the Mediterranean climate of the western US allowed large dryland wheat farms to be converted into fruit farms that relied on migrant farm workers. The Spanish and later Mexican governments made large land grants to elites at a time of relatively little immigration, leading to the creation of feudal estates that housed and employed peasants. Efforts to transform these haciendas into family-sized farms failed in the 1850s and again after the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17. Instead, the Mexican government created communal ejidos on land taken from large landowners, creating small farmers who could not sell or borrow money against the value of their land. The result was limited investment, widespread rural poverty, and migration to Mexican cities and the US"--

Rising consumer demand for fresh fruits and vegetables has led to the employment of five million Mexican-born workers on North American farms during a typical year. The migration of Mexican workers within and from Mexico has implications for North American agriculture, labor, and economic development. For instance, the guest worker systems of Canada and the US allow Mexican workers to earn five times more in six months than they could earn in a year at home, fueling the construction of trophy homes in rural Mexico but not necessarily spurring economic development. The expansion of export agriculture encourages internal migration from south-to-north within Mexico, which moves migrants to areas that offer higher wages but may subject some migrants to exploitation.

In Bracero 2.0, Philip Martin draws on decades of research and experience to explore the role of rural Mexicans in North American agriculture, as well as the implications for farm employers and farm workers, consumers, and the economies of North America. Martin assesses the historical and current demand for and supply of farm labor and the operation of farm labor markets in Canada, Mexico, and the US. He also uses statistical and survey data to provide the most reliable portrait of the five million people who work for wages on North American farms and explores alternatives to US farm workers in major fruits and vegetables, showing how changing consumer preferences can speed or slow mechanization. Bracero 2.0 concludes with options to improve protections for farm workers, highlighting the need for systems that ensure continuous labor law compliance--as with food safety--rather than compliance only for government or private audits.