Around 75% of immigrant farm workers in Bakersfield, California, ditched their shifts after Trump ramped up his threats by removing protections against ICE raids in “sensitive areas,” including schools and workplaces.
This also highlight how many companies are taking advantage of these people in a modern form of slavery…
Funny how we never demonize the fucking companies taking advantage of these people.
I’m torn.
Obviously taking advantage of cheap, desperate labor to maximize profit is wrong.
On the other hand, the whole thing feels like a deliberate act by the ruling class to turn the working class against each other. I’m hesitant to hate on farmers when billionaires are also suppressing wages so harshly all of society.
Nothing to be torn about: there are no “farmers” anymore, just Big Ag (Tyson, General Mills, Bayer (formerly Monsanto), etc.).
I think a lot of them are here for the jobs, because they couldn’t make that much money in their home country.
In Canada too, we just gussie it up as the “temporary foreign workers” program, and bring immigrants over here for a while to do shit jobs we white people don’t want to do, like work in Tim Hortons or drive for Uber, and leave them trying to afford housing and cost of living, and many just come here and move into shelters, or live in extremely large family settings, which makes locals hate them more because of the housing crisis.
I think immigration needs huge reform in Canada, and that the pathways to citizenship through massive tuition fees bumping out citizens from higher education and using diploma mill “colleges” need to be closed, but the temporary worker program is just slightly polished up slavery and nothing more. If we’re going to offer immigration it should be to skilled people who can work in their field here and can afford to live here, and not just dangling scraps in front of vulnerable people because it’s somewhat better than living in an underdeveloped country’s slums so they can be our slaves, while we all fight over housing and resent each other. At least the migrant agricultural worker program doesn’t hide the fact it is farm labour and temporary.
The agricultural migrant worker program is ok. They come in understanding what the job is and what they will get. The Mexican crew at my SO’s old job have been coming for years, they’re very much part of the family, and good friends with all the staff, and enjoy the season they spend there, and they make some amazing food for the harvest parties. I’m not saying it’s perfect but at least it’s honest about what they will receive, it’s usually pretty friendly, and they’re not handed a Tim Hortons uniform and directed to the nearest shelter while promised a better life, and having Canadians resent them for being there and taking up resources like housing (the migrant agricultural workers live on the farm or surrounding properties in more of a dormitory situation instead of finding their own housing). There is nothing pretentious about it and in my experience they’re very peaceful people.
One thing I think would be better is to create an educational bridging program for doctors who come to Canada and don’t qualify to work here. If we offered training at our standards to internationally trained doctors and made a deal with them they had to take a job in an underserviced area for family medicine in exchange and have a full roster of patients, that would be a better use of resources and would benefit everyone. There are so many who can’t practice here, and I just think they could really be a valuable resource. I know a pediatric cardiologist from Pakistan who works as a cardiovascular testing tech, a geneticist from Brazil who is working as a translator, my own GP was a respirologist in Croatia and went through med school here again to practice in family medicine. Hell I know a German psychiatrist, who actually does have the same level of education and training as Canadian doctors, and they made him go through five more years of residency that he had finished 15 years before. Set them up to have the correct education to be GPs and sign a contract with them that they have to work in an area that is low in family doctors. I bet that would solve a lot.
fuck that. we shouldn’t only be open to one class of immigrant. I don’t pretend to have answers but I know that this idea further a class hierarchy and as such is crap.
I think it should be until housing and services can keep pace with the huge influx of immigrants we got in the last two years. It’s one thing to have a subspecialist physician apply to move here, that’s very needed all the time, but also they’re not going to live off of the social welfare net because they’ll make liveable salaries and be able to buy a home.
Let the farms try to hire us citizens for this work. No one will take jobs that pay dollars per hour with no benefits. Let the farms raise salaries and charge Americans triple for produce. Let Americans bitch… Then watch Trump and GOP blame the liberals for it.
Oh they can still use inmigrants, they just have to get them into private prison work programs first.
Howdy, a reminder that we live in a market economy. What will happen is that if no one shows up for work at the wage offered to illegal workers, gradually, the rates offered will increase until someone shows. You’ll notice America has no shortage of other classes of workers, such as sewer maintenance engineer or garbage collector. The reason is those jobs were never held by illegal workers. Will produce be as cheap as it was before? No, but then again it should not be a fundamental part of our economy to employ illegal workers. Either reform immigration law to allow for migrant workers or get rid of them. This weird middle-ground where we tolerate illegal employment in exchange for subsidized prices for produce is ridiculous. If we wouldn’t have allowed this in the first place, the problem would not be so hard to solve today.
There are lots of legal migrant workers. One of the many problems with these mass deportations is that even legal immigrants, maybe even citizens, have to be afraid to show up.
The question is what percentage of these workers are undocumented? I don’t recall reading any actual numbers.
And to spread the icing on this shit-cake, I do remember reading months ago the claim that most illegals are people overstaying a work or student visa. Are we demonizing these people for nothing?
The question is what percentage of these workers are undocumented?
That’s covered in the article:
The USDA estimated that between 2020-2022 about 32% of crop farmworkers were U.S. born, 7% were immigrants who had obtained citizenship, 19% were authorized immigrants, mostly permanent residents or green-card holders and the remaining 42% were unauthorized to work. The majority of these workers have Latino backgrounds.
I think most people agree with you, and I don’t really think anyone would say that hiring illegal workers to lower prices and pay them lower wages is a solution.
People are upset not because they can’t exploit illegal immigrants anymore, but because the solution should’ve been to provide the working immigrants with worker protections and easier paths to citizenship (which you suggested something similar). Instead they’re attempting to suddenly and forcefully deport all of them.
How about if you are hiring undocumented immigrants for this work, let’s not arrest the immigrants, let’s arrest the owners of the farm.
Then we’ll sell the farm off to someone who is willing to pay a living wage to people, and not slaves with no other options.
If socialist-welfare-handout farming subsidies were paid it be great if they were forced to be returned by people that employed those not legal to work in the us as well. Misusing government funds and all that jazz.
Naturally this will never happen but it’d be a good idea lol
A fundamental part of our economy/way of life should not be dependent on near slave labor
He probably means they pay single-digit dollars per hour, as opposed to tens of dollars per hour.
But they also could be paying per amount of crop harvested (per bushel or per pound), I think.
Mmm, can’t wait to pay $15 for produce. Fucking idiot Americans voting against their own interests.
I think the real issue is we’re using undocumented immigrants to do these jobs. They don’t get the same protections that legal workers get.
That may be an underlying issue but when the baby is incessantly screaming and crying, it doesn’t help to throw boiling water on it
Absolutely, but we are well past people using logic and reason. We wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place, and we could have spent time actually solving legal immigration (among many other things) instead of years of focus on her emails and all the nonsense of 2016-2020.
Let me start to say that I’m on our side (probably), but are you implying that you want those workers to be underpaid and have no worker rights so your produce price stays low?
This has always been a complex dynamic.
For example, is it wrong for me to buy Tuna tinned in South East Asia? The people working there have few rights and are paid a pittance for their work. That said, it’s a highly sought after job because the other jobs available in the area are far worse.
Really we’re talking about labor arbitrage. Whether or not the labor actually happens locally or in a foreign jurisdiction, laborers residing in a poorer jurisdiction are selling their labor to people in a wealthier one.
I think the answer to whether or not it’s “ok” is firstly a personal one, (maybe I’m ok with it while others aren’t), but also dependent on the degree of difference.
It might be ok to buy tinned Tuna from a company that invests in foreign communities and pays employees a living wage with good terms, but probably not ok to buy tinned Tuna from a company that chains employees to machines for 16 hours a day before allowing them to return to their cage-box.
What I’m saying is, I’m ok with foreign workers being paid less provided that it’s not exploitative, which is subjective.
We told you so.
I don’t understand how this is supposed to make eggs cheaper.
(obligatory FUCK ICE)
