Mines, Richard. Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (naws) 1990. a Demographic and Employment Profile of Perishable Crop Farm Workers. Research Report No. 1. , 1991. Print.
In the lat nineties more than 50 percent of all agricultural workers were migrant workers according to the "NAWS" demographic report. These migrant workers play a key role in the success of our agricultural business Yet they still remain the least educated minority group in our country.
According to the 1997-98 "NAWS" "data revealed that most farmworkers (81 percent) were foreign born, a 1990s
demographic change in rural areas known as "Latinization." Migrant farmworkers were
more likely to be foreign born (nine out of ten) relative to nonmigrants (only two thirds).
More than half of farmworkers (52 percent) were unauthorized workers, and only 22
percent were citizens. Of the work-authorized farmworkers, 40 percent were citizens by
birth; the rest acquired residence under the special agricultural worker program, family
reunification programs, or other legal immigrant channels (Mehta et al., 2000)."(pg.3)
The median level of education for these migrant workers was 6th grade and only 1 out of 5 workers had taken adult education classes. These statistics are quite alarming to me considering the fact the HEP program was implemented in 1967 30 years before this data was collected.
I feel one of the factors contributing to these numbers is that a lot of migrant workers may not even know there are programs out there to assist them. A program cannot be successful if no one knows it is there.
There are many disadvantages migrant workers have to overcome, such as language, the constant moving to follow work, and a difficult to understand educational system.
Hi Travis:
ReplyDeleteI'm responding to both of your posts, along with your in-class freewrite, here. First off, considering we discussed the difficulty you had finding sources at the beginning of class today, I feel like you managed to find some really good ones. Velazquez provides a compelling human-interest angle, while Mines provides a rich statistical overview of migrant populations. The balance you found-- between the narrative and the quantitative-- will be super-productive as you continue to go forward.
In your freewrite, you state that you're interested in learning more about why migrant workers drop out of school, and also also about the number of workers in Idaho. I think the former question, in particular, could be a rich ground for inquiry simply because the issue is so complex. I don't know of resources that address migrant populations specifically, but anything by Mike Rose will talk about how the problem of poverty-- of marginalization-- impacts people's ability to receive an education. Alternately, you might consider Keith Gilyard's "Voice of the Self" or Victor Vallinueva's "Bootstraps." I haven't read the latter, but it's highly recommended by some friends. The former talks about minority education from a socio-linguistic perspective but some of its' chapters are at least vaguely comprehensible.
As regards the structure and form of your responses, you're pretty much on track. Pay close attention to the academic articles we read and you come across, and take note of how they're using their sources. The key point is to continue clearly delineating the ideas of others from your own, and also to continue speaking back to the authors that you find. Keep it up!
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ReplyDeleteTravis,
ReplyDeleteI really like the information that your found with this source. This provided a very interesting statistical perspective that I had not previously consider. The citation of your source looks to be correct along with the guidelines laid out by OWL at Purdue. I like your use of this source in condensing the information into the usable and relevant statistics for our project.
Your extended bibliography follows very well to our unit one outline. I would like to see you expand more personally on your source and draw further reflections. When you state “These statistics are quite alarming to me considering the fact the HEP program was implemented in 1967 30 years before this data was collected.” I was very fascinated in this aspect, however your post didn't dive further into the topic to express any deeper connections. The overall form of your post is great and provides an insightful view as to other aspects that are effecting migrant workers. One question that I draw off your citation is what are programs like HEP are doing to advertise themselves to the migrant demographic. I will be very interested in learning more through our service-learning how they approach and extend their services to migrant students in the state.
I'm excited to work more with students through our service-learning partner and find out more about the challenges these students face growing up in migrant families. What has made these students return to school, and what new challenges do they now have to over come to stay in school. After my first interaction with the students I started to wonder how successful this program is at producing graduates who advance through their GED of High School equivalency certification. I believe that the students and teachers alike feel that the process is working. But does it stop here, or is this second chance, as is may be, true step up to the students and are they capitalizing on this opportunity?