IMMIGRATION AND AGRICULTURAL LABOR POLICIES



increased mobility of the rural population have opened new job alter-
natives for workers. Recent declines in the birthrate mean that fewer
younger workers will be coming onto the labor market in upcoming
years. Factors such as the widespread ownership of telephones and
televisions, better labor market information, the consolidation of rural
schools, and development of our social welfare system have diminished
differences between urban and rural residents and contributed to ris-
ing expectations of American workers. Farmworker unions have be-
come established in certain agricultural labor markets.

All of these factors call into question the continued availability of
a large pool of workers for intermittent employment in agriculture.
More and more, farmers will have to directly compete with non-farm
employers for their workers. These changes are rendering obsolete
traditional labor market practices, characterized by ample supplies of
labor, lack of formality and structure, and the absence of stability and
commitment on the part of both employers and workers. These changes
should mean that agriculture can no longer maintain its relative de-
tachment from labor issues.

Reality #3: Pending Changes in U.S. Immigration Policy

More important for some agricultural employers than the foregoing
environmental changes is recent rethinking of America’s immigration
policies and practices. Many farms, especially in certain labor inten-
sive fruit and vegetable production, have long relied on successive
waves of legal immigrants, including temporary laborers imported un-
der the Bracero program begun during World War II. Currently, sev-
eral fruit and vegetable farm employers — along with hotels, restaurants
and certain construction and manufacturing firms — are heavily de-
pendent on illegal foreign workers.

Mexican workers, attracted by wages that allow them to earn in an
hour what they would in a day in Mexico, have crossed the border
illegally in rising numbers and have swelled the U.S. work force at
rates estimated at more than a million workers a year.

As a consequence, the calls for increased control of immigration have
been mounting and the U.S. Congress has given serious consideration
to measures which would more strictly control illegal immigration. A
bill entitled the Immigration Reform and Control Act offered by Sen-
ator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wy) passed the Senate by wide margins in
votes taken in December 1982 and May 1983. A companion bill intro-
duced by Representative Romano Mazzoli (D-Ky) has thus far failed
to pass in the House of Representatives.

Given the belief expressed by the Reagan administration in sup-
porting the Simpson-Mazzoli measures that America has “lost control
of her borders” and given the sentiment of a majority of Americans
(including a majority of Hispanic Americans) polled on the issue in
favor of controlling illegal immigration, and given the fact that illegal

148



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