Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JEdwardTaylor

Immigration is changing the face of rural America, from Florida to Washington and from Maine to California. Migrants arrive, many from Mexico, to fill jobs on farms and in farm-related industries, usually at earnings below the poverty. Leaders of rural industries are adamant that a steady influx of foreign workers is necessary for economic survival. But the integration of these newcomers is uneven: many immigrants achieve some measure of the American dream, but others find persistent poverty, overcrowded housing, and crime. The New Rural Poverty examines the effect of rural immigration on inland agricultural areas in California, farm areas in coastal California, and meat and poultry processing centers in Delaware and Iowa. The authors examine the interdependencies between immigrants and agriculture in the United States, explore the policy challenges and options, and assess how current proposals for immigration reform will affect rural America.

Using U.S. Census data and information collected from extensive site visits, the authors find that immigrants, most of them from rural Mexico, are changing the face of rural California, increasing population, poverty, and public service demands. Upward mobility among these immigrants may be limited, and recent legislative changes are reducing public resources available to integrate newcomers just as their numbers are increasing.

Using U.S. Census data and information collected from extensive site visits, the authors find that immigrants, most of them from rural Mexico, are changing the face of rural California, increasing population, poverty, and public service demands. Upward mobility among these immigrants may be limited, and recent legislative changes are reducing public resources available to integrate newcomers just as their numbers are increasing.

This report gives a brief overview of the American farm and its labor supply before the industrial age. It outlines how the federal government has, over time, intervened in agriculture to assure farmers parity with nonfarm families and how it has not intervened to equalize conditions in farm and nonfarm labor markets. Topics discussed include a review of U.S. immigration policy as it applies to migrant farm workers and the agricultural provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). The three major effects of IRCA on agriculture are listed and discussed along with the reform recommendations of the Commission on Agricultural Workers.

This paper examines the impact of farm labor contractors (FLCs) on U.S. immigration, labor, and civil rights policy. It describes the evolution and operation of FLCs and discusses two proposals to either eliminate or to better regulate FLC operations. The authors note that the status quo promises that many new entrants to the U.S. workforce find employment under the "harvest of shame" conditions that the United States has been trying to eliminate for decades. Also discussed are the employer sanctions introduced by the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and its effect on FLCs.

This paper outlines the decisions that would be integral to the development of a guest worker program that would allow Mexicans to work legally on a temporary basis in the United States. Topics covered include a rationale for importing workers, managing inevitable migration, regional labor agreements, labor certification, labor importer-exporter arrangements, recruitment, and workers' rights. An appendix provides a discussion of current guest worker proposals.

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