The 1930’s were a tough time, especially for the farmers who lost theirs farms and for the many children who died from the dust. The Dust Bowl was caused by modern farming tools and the large number of unprepared and unprotected farms.
What was life like for migrant farm workers in the 1930s?
Migrant workers lacked educational opportunities for their children, lived in poverty and terrible housing conditions, and faced discrimination and violence when they sought fair treatment. Attempts to organize workers into unions were violently suppressed.
What was life like in the Salinas Valley in the 1930’s?
The Salinas Valley during the 1930s was very productive in the area crops but not in the area of employment rights. Its geography and weather was a critical part of letting the crops grow properly.
What were migrant farmers in 1930s America?
The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl (a period of drought that destroyed millions of acres of farmland) forced white farmers to sell their farms and become migrant workers who traveled from farm to farm to pick fruit and other crops at starvation wages.
Where did the migrant workers come from in 1930?
The migrants represented in Voices from the Dust Bowl came primarily from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Most were of Anglo-American descent with family and cultural roots in the poor rural South.
What challenges did migrant workers face?
The main issues facing migrant garment workers are:
- Lack of rights (implementation) resulting from insecure legal status.
- Composition of workforce.
- Low pay, no pay, deception & overtime.
- Debt bondage & contracts.
- Labour organisation.
- Violence & intimidation.
- Sexual harassment & gender discrimination.
How much did migrant workers get paid in the 1930s?
Migrant workers in California who had been making 35 cents per hour in 1928 made only 14 cents per hour in 1933. Sugar beet workers in Colorado saw their wages decrease from $27 an acre in 1930 to $12.37 an acre three years later.
Why did many migrant workers travel to Salinas Valley in the 1930s?
Since farm workers with no steady employment, would often head to these communities, it was logical that Salinas Valley was George and Lennie’s destination. Migrant farm workers were perfect examples, to highlight the solitude and loneliness engendered by the Depression.
What was the Salinas Valley known for?
The Salinas Valley is located in California. It is known as “the salad bowl of the world” because of its heavy agriculture industry, which supplies most of America with salad greens and other vegetables.
What was happening socially in the early 1930s in California?
California was hit hard by the economic collapse of the 1930s. Businesses failed, workers lost their jobs, and families fell into poverty. While the political response to the depression often was confused and ineffective, social messiahs offered alluring panaceas promising relief and recovery.
Why did Californians hate Okies?
Because they arrived impoverished and because wages were low, many lived in filth and squalor in tents and shantytowns along the irrigation ditches. Consequently, they were despised as “Okies,” a term of disdain, even hate, pinned on economically degraded farm laborers no matter their state of origin.
Where did migrant farmers live and work?
Many migrants set up camp along the irrigation ditches of the farms they were working, which led to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions. They lived in tents and out of the backs of cars and trucks. The working hours were long, and many children worked in the fields with their parents.
Why did farmers migrate to California in the 1930s?
Driven by the depression, drought, and the Dust Bowl, thousands upon thousands left their homes in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Over 300,000 of them came to California. They looked to California as a land of promise.
What did migrant workers eat in the 1930s?
Migrant families primarily subsisted on starch-based foods like potatoes, biscuits, and fried dough that would fill them up enough to complete a day’s work in the fields. The estimated annual income of agricultural workers was $450 per family.
What was a typical day for a migrant worker?
The typical day for a migrant worker was very difficult they moved place to place looking for jobs. The workers asked to stay at a home but it always came with a price, the price was work. The workers had to do a job and once they were finished they could stay at the place for the night.
What do migrant farm workers do?
The term “migrant farmworker” include people working temporarily or seasonally in farm fields, orchards, canneries, plant nurseries, fish/seafood packing plants, and more.
What were typical salaries for migrant workers?
How much does a Migrant Worker make in California? As of Jul 31, 2022, the average annual pay for a Migrant Worker in California is $46,476 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $22.34 an hour. This is the equivalent of $894/week or $3,873/month.
How are migrant workers treated?
But the life of a migrant worker is often a harsh and isolated one. Cut off from their loved ones and support networks; often unaware of local laws, languages and customs; and frequently denied the same rights as national workers, migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Do migrant workers still exist today?
There is an estimated 2.4 million hired farmworkers in the US, including migrant, seasonal, year-round, and guest program workers.
What happened to most Okies in California?
Predominantly upland southerners, the half-million Okies met new hardships in California, where they were unwelcome aliens, forced to live in squatter camps and to compete for scarce jobs as agricultural migrant laborers.
Where in California did migrant workers find jobs in 1930?
Many families left farm fields to move to Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay area, where they found work in shipyards and aircraft factories that were gearing up to supply the war effort.