H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program

H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program
Author: United States. General Accounting Office. Health, Education, and Human Services Division
Publisher:
Total Pages: 24
Release: 1998
Genre: Agricultural laborers, Foreign
ISBN:

H-2 A Agricultural Guestworker Program

H-2 A Agricultural Guestworker Program
Author: Carolyn S. Blocker
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1998-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780788174476

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 created the "H-2A" program, under which employers may bring workers into this country on a temporary, nonimmigrant basis to perform seasonal agricultural work when domestic workers are unavailable. This report presents information on the likelihood of a widespread agricultural labor shortage and its impact on the need for nonimmigrant guestworker and the H-2A program's ability to meet the needs of agricultural employers while protecting domestic and foreign agricultural workers, both at present and if a significant number of nonimmigrant guestworkers is needed in the future.

An Analysis of the H-2a Agricultural Guest Worker Program and Recommendations for Future Policy

An Analysis of the H-2a Agricultural Guest Worker Program and Recommendations for Future Policy
Author: Paulina M. Irigaray
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 95
Release: 2011-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1599423820

The majority of the people who make up the United States' seasonal agricultural workforce are nonimmigrant Mexican citizens. Immigration policies such as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the H-2A agricultural guest worker program were meant to encourage growers to employ legal labor workforces. A study of the laws and practices that eventually resulted in the H-2A program shows how and why the demographics are predominantly Mexican. In addition, such study is revealing as to why the US enacted the H-2A program-including definitional details of the program itself. However, does this program really work? This question has radically different answers. In theory, the program seems to be well designed; but, in practice, it does not function as intended because of its many shortcomings, loopholes, open-ended issues, and poor enforcement. I will analyze and demonstrate how these inadequacies perpetuate illegal immigration and exploitation of both legal and illegal seasonal agricultural farm workers. Lastly, I will offer a composite of recommendations for legislative reform of the H-2A program; as well as provide pertinent, resourceful questions for further research.

Merchants of Labor

Merchants of Labor
Author: Philip L. Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2017
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 019880802X

Some 10 million migrant workers cross national borders each year. This book examines the businesses that move low-skilled workers, explaining recruitment, remuneration and retention, and showing how national borders increase recruitment costs. Tackling the often murky world of labor migration, it fills an important void in this fast-growing field.

The Human Cost of Food

The Human Cost of Food
Author: Charles D. Thompson, Jr.
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2002-08-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780292781788

Finding fresh fruits and vegetables is as easy as going to the grocery store for most Americans—which makes it all too easy to forget that our food is cultivated, harvested, and packaged by farmworkers who labor for less pay, fewer benefits, and under more dangerous conditions than workers in almost any other sector of the U.S. economy. Seeking to end the public's ignorance and improve workers' living and working conditions, this book addresses the major factors that affect farmworkers' lives while offering practical strategies for action on farmworker issues. The contributors to this book are all farmworker advocates—student and community activists and farmworkers themselves. Focusing on workers in the Southeast United States, a previously understudied region, they cover a range of issues, from labor organizing, to the rise of agribusiness, to current health, educational, and legal challenges faced by farmworkers. The authors blend coverage of each issue with practical suggestions for working with farmworkers and other advocates to achieve justice in our food system both regionally and nationally.

Importing Poverty?

Importing Poverty?
Author: Philip L. Martin
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2009-04-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0300156006

American agriculture employs some 2.5 million workers during a typical year. Three fourths of these farm workers are immigrants, half are unauthorized, and most will leave seasonal farm work within a decade. This book looks at what these statistics mean for farmers, labourers, and rural America.

Grounds for Dreaming

Grounds for Dreaming
Author: Lori A. Flores
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2016-01-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300216386

Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California’s Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period. An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, Lori Flores’s first book offers crucial insights for today’s ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.