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Farm labor contractors: The processors of new immigrant labor from Mexico for Californian agribusiness

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  • Fred Krissman

Abstract

The deteriorating living and working conditions suffered by California's farm workers and their families is associated with the escalating proportion of the agricultural labor market ( ALM) provisioned by the state's farm labor contractors ( FLCs). The increasing use of FLCs is the result of a restructuring strategy undertaken by Californian agribusiness to reduce the cost of labor, as well as responsibility for work place, labor, and immigration laws. The FLCs' rise to prominence as the bulwark between growers and workers within the state's ALM has been ensured by the internal dynamics of contractor firms. During almost three years of binational fieldwork in both California's San Joaquin Valley and rural Mexico I found that FLC management agents cultivate sociocultural practices and provide socioeconomic services that diffuse management-labor conflict within the agricultural sector. However, the existing literature concerning the FLCs focuses upon the firm, not its labor agents; therefore, FLC heterogeneity is emphasized, while ubiquitous management characteristics and practices are overlooked. As a result, recent legislation has had the unintended effect of augmenting the role played by management agents in “processing” an unending flow of new immigrant workers through the “revolving door” ALM, leading to the deterioration of conditions in rural California. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1995

Suggested Citation

  • Fred Krissman, 1995. "Farm labor contractors: The processors of new immigrant labor from Mexico for Californian agribusiness," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 12(4), pages 18-46, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:12:y:1995:i:4:p:18-46
    DOI: 10.1007/BF02218565
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    1. Theodore P. Lianos & Quirino Paris, 1972. "American Agriculture and the Prophecy of Increasing Misery," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 54(4_Part_1), pages 570-577.
    2. Andre Gunder Frank, 1978. "Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-16014-3, October.
    3. Mines, Richard & Anzaldua Montoya, Ricardo, 1982. "New Migrants vs. Old Migrants: Alternative Labor Market Structures in the California Citrus Industry," University of California at San Diego, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies qt7f47m6wf, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego.
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    Cited by:

    1. Richards, Timothy J., 2018. "Immigration Reform and Farm Labor Markets," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274165, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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