Bracero
What is the Bracero Program? What happened to the Braceros both in the U.S. And Mexico? What are your impressions of the people's experiences in the program? Should the U.S. create another "guest-worker" program?
The Bracero Program allowed migrant unskilled laborers from Mexico, primarily in the agricultural sector, to work temporarily in the United States. The program was a mutual agreement between the American and Mexican governments after the Second World War. The Braceros provided cheap labor to help build American infrastructure, and it was mainly Americans and not the Mexicans who benefitted. In fact, the Bracero system channeled labor that was needed to build Mexican infrastructure to the United States. Braceros in the United...
United States citizens had been available for these jobs during the immense unemployment that existed during the 1930s, forcing the Mexicans out. World War II saw these workers enlisting in the military, working in factories, or moving into other jobs as the economy generally expanded. The Mexican immigrants not only provided the plentiful labor that was needed, but they provided it cheaply -- typical wages were between fifty or sixty
Bracero Program and Social Inequality The Bracero Program was a WW2 initiative decreed by Executive Order that allowed Mexican labor on U.S. farms. It was known as the Mexican Farm Labor Program and the purpose of this program was to ensure that labor shortages did not result in the agricultural sector in the wake of so many American men being drafted or volunteering for the war. The temporary usage of
In fact, one study suggested that if a fruit or vegetable could not be harvested mechanically, it would not be grown in the United States after 1975 (Braceros: History, Compensation). Workers in the Bracero Program faced a great amount of worker exploitation in the form of low pay and lost wages, both from the United States government as well as their own home government in Mexico. Currently, the governments of
History of ChicanosThe history of the Chicano and Chicana movements in the U.S. is a history of self-assertion and self-esteem. The Chicano population gradually became alive to the fact that they had value in a society that always seemed to devalue them and come to their support only when it served the government�s best interests (as happened during WWII). By the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanos had had enough of this
For example a study in 1982-83 had found that illegal aliens were contributing more to the economy than the state was spending on them. (Cited in LeMay, ed. 1989, 10) There is much confusion in connection with the economic impact. Some studies feel that illegal aliens contribute very little considering the fact that they are usually employed in low paying jobs. Economists have consistently argued back and forth as to whether
INTRODUCTION The U.S. was formed by immigrants: they came from Europe—from England, Germany, Poland, Ireland, France, Italy, and many other countries. Later on, they began coming in from Asia, and then from Mexico—particularly during the 20th century when the Bracero Program was put into effect by the U.S. federal government to help ensure that the fields were taken care of while the men were off fighting in WW2 (Calavita 1992). This
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