United States of America
Sea to Table: The Role of Foreign-Born Workers in the Seafood Processing Industry
Ask any group of Americans who is responsible for some of the fresh food on their table and you’re likely to hear a few common themes. Some might think of a third- or fourth-generation Midwestern farmer, plowing corn or wheat in the field with the help of machines. Others might… Read More
Sea to Table: The Role of Foreign-Born Workers in the Seafood Processing Industry
Ask any group of Americans who is responsible for some of the fresh food on their table and you’re likely to hear a few common themes. Some might think of a third- or fourth-generation Midwestern farmer, plowing corn or wheat in the field with the help of machines. Others might… Read More
New Americans in Birmingham Contribute $3 billion to GDP, New Study Shows
Birmingham, AL– Today, the City of Birmingham and New American Economy released a report documenting the economic impact of immigrants in Birmingham, Alabama. Accounting for just 3.5 percent of the overall population in 2014, the foreign-born of the Birmingham metro area made up an outsize 5.2 percent of the employed workforce… Read More
May Day 2017: Why immigrant labor is more important now than ever
On Monday, tens of thousands were expected to walk out of their jobs and take to the streets for a national Day Without Immigrants strike. The strike was predicted by organizers to be the largest single-day labor strike in over a decade. The message of Monday’s protest was… Read More
Farmer Creates Local Jobs — With Help of Migrant Labor
Jack Hedin is the owner and operator of Featherstone Farm, a four-season farm in Rushford, Minnesota, that specializes in organic vegetable production. The $1.8 million business employs 15 workers year-round and as many as 35 seasonally, the majority of whom come from Mexico on the H-2A temporary work visa. “That… Read More
Americans Don’t Apply, Wisconsin Dairy Farmer Says
Paul Fetzer is the fourth-generation owner of his family’s dairy farm, Fetzer Farms, which he operates with his brothers in Elmwood, Wisconsin. With 1,350 cows, the business requires 26 full-time employees, and today 18 of those employees are immigrants. “We’ll put ads out locally trying to attract American-born workers, and… Read More
Without More Foreign Workers, Oregon Vintner Asks, ‘What Will We Do?’
In the 1970s, when Patricia Dudley and her husband left academic jobs to grow pinot noir grapes, they ran the small vineyard with family co-owners. “We wanted to be more connected to the natural world and the earth,” says Dudley, president of Bethel Heights Vineyard, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. “In… Read More
Minnesota Farms Depend on Immigrant Workers and Foreign Students
Jim Riddle is the owner of Blue Fruit Farm in Winona, Minnesota, where he raises organic perennial fruits on a 5-acre plot of land. Riddle and his wife keep the operation small so they can get by on their own labor and that of crew leaders and a handful of… Read More
Guatemalan Immigrant Works to Boost Earnings for Small U.S. Farms
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin was born and raised in Guatemala and came to the United States in 1992 after his wife, Amy, who was born and raised in the United States, enrolled in a master’s degree program at the University of Minnesota. “We had made education part of our promise to each… Read More
Utah Farmer: ‘Not Once’ Has an American Applied to Milk My Cows
In November 2016, shortly after the presidential election, Ron Gibson had to reduce his Utah dairy farm’s milking schedule from four times a day to three times a day. There weren’t enough people on staff to do the work, as many immigrant laborers had disappeared from the area after the… Read More
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