Migrant workers

From 1917 and to the early 1920s war time food demands created many jobs for migrant workers around the country. As the war ended food production stayed the same but demand was reduce which made cheap migrant workers more valuable. most of the migrant workers at the time were from mexico and during the 1920s many mexicans immigrated to u.s to meet the labor demands. School was shut down and children would go to work and help pick fruit and vegetables.

with the onset of the great depression all the industries fell into hard times including the agricultural industry. There were many people in the u.s that did not have jobs at the time and were willing to work for less money. In an effort to open up jobs for people born in the united states many mexican and mexican-american migrant workers were deported to create jobs for people in the u.s. many mexican and mexican-american migrant workers were deported. to create jobs foe people in the U.S. At first americans were reluctant to take migratory labor positions but many took them out of necessity.

The U.S entered world war 2 in 1941 and this brought back the war time demand for food and labor. Farmers products were in high in demand but they didn't have the labor force to harvest their crops. Once again mexico was called upon to fill the labor demands created by the war. Mexico and America created an agreement known as the bracero program which managed the importation of mexican workers.

were very good for those working in the bracero program in the U.S. The program brought nearly

350,000 workers into the country during the 50s, many of them only made a annaul salary of 7,500 dollars a year. They would sign contracts with companies to pick: sugar beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cotton. the times were good for work, but the workers still had to del with very harsh living conditions and racism.

Saw the san of Bracero program for several reasons, the main being that it was described as "legalized slavery." The 60s saw a huge increase in illegal workers coming to the country while at the same time there was a decrease available work because of automated cotton pickers and other new machines. Most workers were now coming out of mexico illegally. The 60s saw the rise Cesar Chavez, a man who was working to negotiate rights for farm workers. They're receiving new contracts that gave them better working and living conditions as well as better pay.

The people that were in the agriculture business were mostly from Mexico and central America. Work had slowed down radically and wages went low employes didn't valued them as much as once did.

By this time there was no underaged pickers allowed. People would pick cherries, cotton and peas only a handful of okies still followed the fruit run in washington state.