Erika Sanchez writes at Truthout about the conditions for immigrant workers in the US in her grandfather's day - the 1950s and 60s:
"In 1951, my grandfather Salvador Herrera, 81, left his hometown in
rural Durango, Mexico, to work as a migrant worker in the United States
as part of the Bracero Program
- the United State's first large-scale attempt to use guest workers. Before heading off to pick crops in California's Central Valley,
however, he first had to travel to Empalme, Sonora, to obtain a
contract. He says that he was required to work for 15 days before he was
eligible. The conditions were dire - the work was arduous, and he was
sometimes forced to sleep on the wet ground. From Empalme, he had to pay for his travel by train to Central
California, where he picked grapes, lettuce and other crops. Though the
living conditions improved once he was in the United States, the work
itself was still grueling. "Those who couldn't pick fast enough didn't
even earn enough money to eat," he says.
Years later, after my grandfather was married and had a family, he
returned to the United States two more times - in 1964 and 1967 - to
work as a bracero. Each contract this time was six months long. Like
most other braceros, 10 percent of his earnings were taken from his
checks. He said that he was never informed why this amount was being
retained or told where the money could be claimed."
It turned out that their pay had been deducted and
transferred to the Mexican government to be given to the workers when
they returned to Mexico, but most braceros never saw that money. But eventually, 'in 2008, at the age of 75, my grandfather finally received the
38,000 pesos ($2,903 today) that were owed to him. "I probably broke
even with all the trips I took to Durango (the city) to look for the
money," my grandfather says.'
His story is typical. Between 1942 and 1964, thousands of Mexicans
from impoverished areas were recruited to go to the United States as
farm workers, and many never received the back pay that was owed them.
At this stage Erika Sanchez tells a few anecdotes of other guest workers of thet era. Talking with relatives it became clear that the 10 percent was taken from workers so they wouldn't walk away
from their contracts and to guarantee that they would leave the
country. The exploitation was in the whole system and
how the whole system operated.
While portions of workers' wages are no longer withheld from them, and employers must meet many federal requirements
now, not much else has changed since then. Even when
there are minimal standards for pay, overtime, housing and other
requirements, employers violate them without any consequences.
The United States currently has two guest worker programs for temporary work lasting less than a year but as the Bracero Program has shown, those who hold restricted status
in the United States are vulnerable to extreme discrimination and
workplace abuses. The new guest worker programs are very similar to the
Bracero Program in the recruitment by employers and the fact that
workers' stay in the country is completely contingent on their work. The basic economic reality has not changed at all. Workers are not
only tied to their employers and unable to work elsewhere, they also
make well below poverty wages - between $15,000 and $20,000 per year. The whole purpose is to supply employers at the price they want to
pay.
As immigration reform hangs in the balance, Bacon, a writer on this topic quoted in the article, believes guest
worker programs should be scrutinized, and Family Preference Systems
should be given precedence. "We need an immigration system that gives
people rights and permanent immigration status," he says.
SOYMB would go much further than creating 'permanent immigration status.'
World socialism means a world without borders: no restrictions, neither immigrants nor emigrees; simply citizens of the world working together in the interests of the whole, from each according to ability to each according to need.
Let's make it happen.
JS
Taken from here
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