Migrant Workers

After our discussion today from reading one, I thought about my dad because he owns a grape farm and hires Mexicans to work on it along with him and his friends. Migrant workers weren't the main focus of our discussion but I did find the conversation interesting. I texted my dad after class and asked if the Mexicans get paid "under the table" and if they do the same jobs as my dad.  He answered and told me that he doesn't pay them with cash and they actually get payroll checks and get paid the same amount as all the other workers and pay payroll taxes as well.  He also said that they do mostly the same jobs as my dad and his other white employees except for drive the tractor but that's because it's illegal.

In the textbook it says "the jobs they fill are those shunned by native workers because they are insecure, seasonal, arduous, low-paying are degraded" (446). By bringing up my dad's farm I wanted to show that jobs that employers give migrant workers aren't always those shunned by the native workers.  I've never considered a farm job "degrading" but that is probably because I'm a farmer's daughter.  Without farms we would not have a lot necessary foods and a lot of people don't realize that.  When I was younger my dad even gave away our van to a Mexican family and sometimes when my siblings and I would get home from school our bikes would be missing because my dad gave them to the Mexican children... which is actually kind of funny.

I'm sure not all employers are as giving as my dad, but I just wanted to point out that not all of them treat their employees like slaves.