Examining farm worker images.

Abstract

AbstractPopular images of farm workers are often outdated or correspond to only a small portion of the farm labour force. This is not surprising, given the fast turnover of the farm workforce and the periodic changes in its make-up. For the USA, images include families following the crops, parents and children working in the fields together and, more recently, large numbers of people entering the USA illegally. This chapter presents a snapshot of farm workers based on findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey. Using data from 12 375 interviews conducted during fiscal years 1993-98, this chapter describes farm worker characteristics by family type and migrant status. In doing so, it examines the validity of popular perceptions and explores the implications of the current findings for farm work service programmes. A central challenge to administrators of both public and private programmes may be how to adjust service delivery activities to a farm worker population that consists increasingly of young, single males, many of whom are recent immigrants and first-time farm workers.