Migrant Workers Book Review

Seth Holmes does a wonderful job shining a light on the current problems that migrant agricultural workers have in the United States. His balance of personal experience with background research allows the audience to empathize with the migrant workers as well as understand some of the systematic problems. Our group seems to thoroughly enjoy reading this book and we have discussed a host of different topics brought up in the reading. The talking points which I have connected with were about the individual reasons why immigrants are coming to the United States and how they relate to the systematic problems. Holmes has given me new insight into the reason why many Hispanics are immigrating as well as disproving many of the myths. Immigrants …show more content…
As hard as their live is as a migrant worker in the United States, it still is better than back where they lived. Although I found this hard to imagine at first, I began to realize that for many migrants they are making a rational choice. As one person in our group pointed out, even though it seems like they might be better off not coming to the United States, they are not going to sit in their homes without work and starve to death. They are going to try to actively pursue a better life, even if it is only slightly better. The United States is often presented as “the land of opportunity,” however, that does not apply so much to the migrant workers. One of the other problems of why there is such hardship year after year is that there is not an option, especially for indigenous people, for upward …show more content…
In my eyes, the largest problem is that the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) does not regulate Agricultural trade. Since NAFTA does not put restrictions on government subsidies on agricultural, it ends up distorting trade between the United States and Mexico. Many Mexicans and indigenous groups cannot compete in the agricultural market. The price of US grown crops, like corn, is so cheap that it drives down the price in Mexico to unsustainable levels. Agricultural workers are put out of work and the jobs that are available are in the United States. Much to my surprise, the agricultural system in the United States actually encourages and needs migrant workers. Scott, one of the crop managers confirms