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Introduction:
This special report written for the Commission on Immigration Reform
describes the current U.S. farm workers' population and trace trends since 1988.
It relies on data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor's National
Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS).
The information is important to the Commission's work because farm workers
represent a large, low-wage labor market which is made up mostly and
increasingly of foreign born individuals. Moreover, due to the high turnover in
the farm labor market, many of these individuals are young and relative
newcomers to U.S. labor markets. The role of young, newcomer immigrants in our
labor markets is a crucial issue which the Commission must confront.
The NAWS survey is uniquely well situated to shed light on the issue of
immigrant-reliant labor markets. Since 1988, the NAWS, three times a year has
surveyed a random sample of the nation's crop farm workers. The interviewed
farm workers reveal detailed information about their basic demographics, legal
status, education, family size and household composition, wages and working
conditions in agricultural jobs, and participation in the non-agricultural U.S.
labor force. This information allows for an in-depth look at current farm
workers and for the tracing of changes occurring since 1988.
In chapter one, the report describes the current pattern and changing
demographics of the farm workers' population touching on the ethnic composition,
the age and gender distribution, and the division among immigration and
citizenship categories. The survey demonstrates that during the study period
(1988-1995), the farm workers' population became increasingly male, increasingly
foreign born and that each successive period showed a higher proportion of
foreigners working without legal authorization. The second chapter details the
household composition of farm workers. The chapter explores, in a novel way, the
propensities of some farm workers to live away from their close family members
while others tend to be accompanied by family while doing farm work in the
United States. In the third and last chapter, the report describes the low
level and lack of improvement in income and details the low social service
utilization patterns of farm workers. Again, the comparison groups used for
analysis are based on ethnicity, age, gender and immigration status.
Unless otherwise stated, the data reported in this paper are from the
1994-1995 period, or the most recent period with useable data. In addition, we
include comparisons across all periods where significant trends exist. The term
farm worker is used throughout the paper. However, the NAWS interviews only
crop workers (not livestock) which the USDA estimates make up about two-thirds
of all farm workers.
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