I have a few comments more or less relevant to your question. They do not
answer your question directly but may provide some resources and
information.
> Hello to all...
>
> Today, I read that 42% of the agricultural laborers in California between
> 1995 and 1997 were illegal aliens.
>
Well, honestly I think "nation states" are imagined communities (Ben
Andersen's book by that name inspired my use of "imagined communities".)
And, I don't like the word illegal aliens. I prefer undocumented and
documented workers. FWIW
> I am wondering if anyone can comment on what sort of structural changes
> would be necessary for California to meet its agricultural
> labor needs using legal laborers ? What volume of total laborers does 42%
Ah heck. You know the answer. How high is unemployment in the usa in
general? What we need is a complete change of our current agsystem. Yeah,
that's the ticket. Sustainable agriculture has human as well as
environmental dismensions.
This is a tricky issue, it's like Pandora's Box. I'm going to try an
analogy that helps me think about it a little bit. If you don't share my
persepctive on the "drug wars" then it may not help you, but I hope it
does a little bit.
I don't know how you understand the "drug wars". But if like me you
believe the govt and the status quo system benefits from the illegality of
drugs and all the money put into "enforcement" and "incarceration" and
that the solution is not more war but a creative and deep rooted social
change. And, if, like me, you believe there is a lot of focusing on the
wrong issues/facts and a lot of downright falsehoods circulating all of
which helps to keep the system (which includes the incredibly costly in
any way you consider costs, lives, money, etc., drug wars) going...And you
think we've therefore got to be really careful in where we get our
information and how we think about it...you might try this same outlook on
the issue of undocumented workers (in general, not just in agriculture).
That is, you might think hmmm, the status quo system benefits from
undocumented workers. Let's look and see how. Now, we know farmers don't
benefit much form the current systems so maybe even though we're being
told they benefit from using undocumented workers, maybe they really
don't. Let's look and see if that's so. What about this war on
"illegal aliens"? Who's benefitting? What's really going on? AS the
question what's really driving the influx of drugs (and it's prior
question is there really an influx?) are good questions so
too here: What's driving the influx, if there really is one (this too is a
good prior question) of undocumented workers? Hmmm, and
the myths begin to unravel and we see that, we need social change, deep
rooted social change to bring about more justice to farm workers and
farmers and to end our belief in imagined communities.....
Pieces that connect to these issues.
H-2 status and the Bracero Bill's attempts to make things worse.
Interestingly, several of Oregon's finest were sponsors of the Bracero
Bill in congress (attempts to take away further rights from H-2 workers,
as if they had much of any to begin with, and attempts to make it easier
for "farmers" to temporarily import workers through use of H-2). PCUN one
of our local farm workers' organizers and advocay non-profits has done a
lot to educate and protest this. They point out that we don't actually
even really have a shortage of willing and able ag workers in Oregon,
contrary to the standard media portrayals. (When we accept that the
hoopla around undocumented workers is full of piss/vinegar and hot steam
we realize that we're going to be surprised as we learn what's really
going on.) I think PCUN has a home page as well.
Consider the irony of the INS busying itself with the threats to economic
stability and national securitiy presented by "illegal aliens" while at
the same time congress is trying to extend the use of H-2 workers and take
away more of their marginal rights and thereby take away more of the
bargaining power than currrent farm workers have.... HMMMMMM...I hate to
sound like a died in the wool leftist but it IS one of those cases where
all us losers: The farmers who are being squeezed out, and all the farm
workers from the h-2, to the us citizen, to the undocumented to
the...end consumer should be in it together, should band together to
resist and change....What's that about Workers of the World Unite? :-)
Check out America's Farmworkers home page....
Also, there is a neat little documentary called I think "H-2 Worker". It's
set in sugar cane harvest in Florida. Really, California is a big ag state
but you'll find documented/undocumented workers lots of places and abuse
of farm workers in every state...ah what a nice cheery thought :-)
A very different set of questions comes up then the ones you ask if you
consider the issues from the perspectives I am suggesting. It's not easy
to do since almost all of our standard information including lots of
academic and historical work bolsters the status quo perspective. But
dissenting views and histories are out there.
Hope this wasn't too esoteric for you, and hope all ag grad students would
be required to study social history with an ag focus...and not just status
quo dogma history.
:-)
eliza
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