This book reconsiders a largely ignored fact of North American Indian economic life--the place of wage labor in the culture and history of Native Americans. Case studies examine social networks of Native agricultural laborers, the decline of Native communities from self-sufficient producers to lower-class wage laborers, vocational education in…

This document was written to support the work of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs. The message provided is straightforward: we can meet the challenge of supporting first and second language development in preschool children. This paper is organized around four questions: (1) Can we facilitate children's acquisition of English…

During the 1980s, the rise of independent farm labor contractors and Republican labor policies led to a deterioration in the economic well-being of farmworkers and their families. Delays in the implementation of new safeguards under the Worker Protection Standards Act have resulted in continuing exposure to pesticides, causing such exposure to…

The status of women viewed against the background of the United Nations Decade for Women is examined with emphasis on the world context, the Latin American context, and the context of rural women in the region. It describes attempts at categorization of rural women in Latin America based on the main types of agricultural economy in the region and…

In spite of recent advances in mechanization, farmworkers continue to be a vital and necessary element in the harvesting of American crops. However, farmworkers, whether migrant or non-migrant, continue to have the lowest annual income of all occupational groups. The overriding concern is one of powerlessness. Farmworkers have been excluded at the…

Describes health problems experienced by the 12,000 migrants in New Jersey. Illustrates the needs for more attention and resources from the medical community. New Jersey programs, including school health services, are relatively advanced in protecting the rights and health of migrant workers, but a lack of resources limits the delivery of…

Written as a practical manual for human service providers at the local level, this guide discusses the interpersonal nature of coordination, gives historical background on the problems of program coordination at the federal level, and provides a detailed checklist for implementing coordination efforts among local agencies. Proposed techniques are…

This paper documents migrant farm workers as being among the most persistently underprivileged groups in American society. Migrant farm workers typically receive low wages from irregular employment and live in poverty with access to only substandard housing and inadequate health care. The lack of economic improvement stems from a number of…

Women in developing nations often work long, grueling hours alongside men in the fields, but must also cook and keep house, rear children, and provide health care. In short, woman's multifaceted labor is key to the family's survival. It is surprising, therefore, that until the United Nations designated a Decade for Women (1976-1985) the importance…

Natural resource and poverty relationships are regionally specific and are associated with particular segments of the nation's population, but have no overall direct causal tie. Although employment in natural-resource-based industries in rural areas accounts for only 16% of all rural employment nationally, these industries continue to make…

This report discusses demographic characteristics of migrant students in the United States, their educational needs, the features of federally-funded programs under the Migrant Education Program (MEP) legislation reform, and suggestions for enhancing current migrant student performance. The MEP was established in 1966 and reauthorized in 1994. It…

Based on a survey of written sources and perspectives of knowledgeable individuals, the report provides information on women's economic roles in Cameroon, and on aspects of social life which effect their economic performance. A description of the importance of traditional social systems and their evolution over the last 30 years follows a brief…

This report examines differences in measures of health status and health services utilization among 386 migrant children (ages 6 months through 5 years) from 253 households. Data were collected from Delmarva Rural Ministries (a migrant health center than maintains three satellite sites serving a 10-county area in Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland),…

Farmers and their families continue to provide the largest proportion of agricultural labor, but hired farmworkers are increasingly supplying a greater part of farm employment. This trend is expected to continue in the eighties with the hired labor proportion gradually increasing. Better information, including crucial individual state data on…

The report includes a conference summary, introductory remarks, keynote address, four conference papers and comments on each, and summary of major policy issues. The keynote address reviews policies and practices affecting migrant children, the roots of the migratory farm labor system, impact of migrancy on families; services for migrant children,…