Migratory Farm Workers in the United States

Abstract

PUBLIC concern regarding migratory farm workers has undergone three distinct and contrasting phases during the past decade. First, there was the prewar phase of concern over too many migratory workers in search of farm jobs. Their numbers were so large in relation to job opportunities that many of them were unwelcome and unwanted. The experience of migratory workers and their families during the 1930 decade reflected a most tragic chapter in our history which has been so well documented that it requires no recapitulation.' World War II brought about drastic changes in the labor supply situation which rapidly reversed the direction of public concern in the matter of migratory farm workers. The second phase was characterized by emergency measures to augment the numbers of seasonal farm workers, including the importation of workers from other countries, particularly to replace the depleted ranks of migratory workers. A third phase was ushered in by the ending of the war, demobilization, and reconversion. Because the direction in which we are going cannot yet be too clearly seen, there is both hope and concern in the minds of students of the problems of migratory workers; for example, a Federal Inter-Agency Committee on Migrant Labor was created with representatives of Federal agencies directly interested in questions relating to living and labor conditions of migrant workers in industry, transportation and agriculture.2 Because mi-