Migrant+Workers

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MIGRANT WORKERS



The term Migrant worker in the U.S. refers to someone who regulary works away from home. Migrant workers lead nomadic lifestyles traveling from place to place as the seasons change. It could also mean, most commonly used to describe low-wage workers performance manual labor in the agriculture feild. Starting at the end of the American Civil War, hobos were the migrant workers who performed much of many agriculture work, using freight railroads as their means to transportation to new jobs. Midwest is where most of the farming took place. Many people including migrant workers were homeless because of the great depression. Farmers had to sell there land because no one could afford to buy crops. The living condition for migrant workers was they lived in small houses and could leave a state only with permission. Migrant farm workers tend to be either newly arrived immigrants or individuals with limited skills and oppertunities. Housing for migrant workers often is overcrowded, poorly maintained, lack of ventilation, bathing facillities, and safe drinking water. Most migrant farmworkers earn annual incomes below the poverty level and few receive benefits such as Social Security or worker's compensation. Migrant farmworkers and their families live and work in almost every state in the country. Many of these workers are U.S. citizens permanent residents in this country. The average farm worker age is around 31 years since it is difficult for older workers to perform physical labor.the FSA camps also furnished the migrants with a safe space in which to retire from the discrimination that plagued them and in which to practice their culture and rekindle a sense of community. Hard physical labor, dangerous equipment, and pesticide exposure make agriculture one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States.



References: http://www.answers.com/topic/migrant-worker http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html http://owen.massey.net/libraries/revolting/migrant.html http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fachap03.html http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/3_2.html#