Hotlisting Migrant Workers
by Art Wolinsky
Introduction · rubric · conclusion · teacher's guide
Economics · Social Issues · MiscellaneousIntroduction · rubric · conclusion · teacher's guide
Economics · Social Issues · MiscellaneousIntroduction
When you want to study a topic like Migrant Workers, it helps to have a few good questions in mind. The best kinds of questions are ones you really want to know the answer to. Sometimes this will be factual and you'll discover the right answer. Other times, your questions get to the heart of what makes a subject worth studying. Many people spend their lives studying and working in fields related to this topic. Now's your chance to join them!
Use the links below to explore the topic, your interests, and those important questions of yours. The Web will offer some unique resources that might not be available anywhere else so dig deep and see what you find. If you want some idea of what good exploring looks like, read the evaluation rubric.htm>rubric.
Internet Links
Economics
- Migrant workers hold breath on move toward mechanization
- Will new picking machines, each of which can do the work of 20-30 field hands, replace workers entirely or simply compensate for the present shortage of migrant labor? ...or are they a ploy to keep labor costs down?
- Montana's Migrant & Seasonal Farmworker Training Program
- It's estimated that between three and five million people travel throughout the country to plant, cultivate, harvest, and process crops.
- The Homeless as Migrant Workers of the 90's
- Are homeless people are being scammed by greedy contractors?
Social Issues
- As U.S. Economy Booms, Housing for Migrant Workers Worsens
- Inside room 39 at the Westwind Motel was an astonishing scene: 10 people bedded down for the night. On the right, five migrant farm workers slept on two mattresses. Straight ahead, two were on blankets on the floor.
- Organizing Workers Beyond Borders
- Migrant workers in other countries have it much worse than here. Some go as far as saying slavery is alive and well, and rampant on a global scale.
- Online News Hour
- Transcript of a PBS report by Rod Minott of KCTS-Seattle, on the problems of housing migrant workers already in the U.S.
- In Strawberry Fields
- The rise of the strawberry industry in California was a boon to the fruit industry, but what was the cost in terms of migrant worker conditions?
- Fruit pickers' summer of squalor
- Comment on Fruit pickers' summer of squalor
Miscellaneous
- State Immigration Facts
- Americans now realize that the costs of our present high level of immigration (legal and illegal) are enormous and growing. Center for Immigration Studies estimated in 1995 that immigration costs us a net $29 billion a year. This site gives a state by state statistical look at migrant worker and immigration facts.
- United States Immigration and Naturalization Services
- The U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an agency of the Department of Justice, is responsible for enforcing the laws regulating the admission of foreign-born persons (i.e., aliens) to the United States and for administering various immigration benefits, including the naturalization of resident aliens.
- U.S. Census Bureau
- Mission: To be the preeminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States.
- Chuck Brodsky's Web Site
- They say that to tell great stories you have to live an adventurous life. It's a tip that songwriter Chuck Brodsky took to heart. He worked as a migrant fruit picker, drove an ice cream truck, labored on an Israeli Kibbutz, worked for a book distributor (where he actually learned to judge a book by its cover), did a stint as a bank courier (until he lost a check for ten million), and survived the
- Lyrics to La Migra Viene
- (Scroll down the page) Folksong writer Chuck Brodsky worked as a migrant worker in the apple orchards on the west coast and wrote a song about some of his experiences. Listen to clip #1. Can you guess what this song is about from these few words? If not, other questions here will help you.
Conclusion
Because anyone can publish on the Web, it sometimes reflects the chaotic, uneven, sometimes confusing world around us. By exploring the Web, you've journeyed into real learning where you must judge between fact and opinion, bias and insight, importance and insignificance. We hope you've added to the wisdom carried around in that head of yours. If you want to check yourself, take a look at the evaluation rubric.htm>rubric for this activity. Either way, remember that understanding isn't a destination, but a journey. Have a great trip!
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created by Art Wolinsky email: awolinsky@oii.org http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/awolinsk/migrants/hotlist.htm |