Background: Little is known in the rehabilitation counseling profession regarding the needs and rehabilitation approaches used with seasonal and migrant farmworkers in the United States. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to provide rehabilitation counselors with awareness of the vocational needs of seasonal and migrant farmworkers. The…

In this article, the author talks about labored learning under the auspices of the "outing program" of Sherman Institute, an Indian boarding school in Riverside, California. The outing system functioned as a vital part of a larger federal Indian boarding school system that sought, in the words of historian Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, to…

Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Dolores Huerta in 1962, dedicated his life to grassroots organizing to persuade lawmakers and the public to help improve the working conditions of migrant farm workers. In October 1992, the author had been teaching a unit of study on civics to her sixth grade bilingual students in…

During the interwar period, California's labor-intensive agriculture transitioned from reliance on diverse immigrants to preference for Mexicans. Political movements to restrict immigration, the Great Depression, and labor unrest compelled farm employers to search for labor that could be used flexibly and deported easily. To achieve this…

In 1970, the Farm Workers Health Service, which was begun in 1961, included 33 decentralized medical clinics which served 24,000 seasonal farm workers and their families in 17 counties during the peak harvest months. Seventeen clinics offered year-round general medical services, and in 12 counties free medical and dental care was available to farm…

During the 1978 agricultural season, migrant farmworkers and their families occupied 2,079 rental units at 26 migrant housing centers provided by the Office of Migrant Services. Supportive services at the centers included day care centers for children two to five years of age, a few infant care facilities, and access to medical serivces,…

The Rural Development Center (Salinas, California) trains farmworkers in the business and science of farming. The nonprofit program provides a rigorous course in agronomy, farm management, organic certification, and produce marketing to primarily Mexican American farm laborers, followed by a 3-year "apprenticeship" on leased land, and…

An astounding construction feat of Chinese Americans was the work done on the western section of the transcontinental railroad. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new line took place in Sacramento in 1863, but up until 1865, less than 50 miles of running track had been laid, and this was over relatively level land. The construction superintendent…

From April 1990 through September 1991, the Rural Workplace Literacy Project (RWLP) provided migrant and seasonal farm workers from 15 agricultural worksites in California with literacy training. The training, designed to develop reading and job skills, involved 282 enrolled farm workers and 109 nonenrolled class attendants. Of the 13 classes…

Data on the status of education for immigrant amnesty applicants in California under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) are summarized. The amnesty applicants fall into two categories: immigrants who can prove continuous U.S. residency before 1982, and "special agricultural workers" who qualify if they worked in…

Examines how officials in Arvin, a small rural California community, developed a family housing project to reduce the housing shortage among agricultural workers. Suggested guidelines for similar programs include assessing area needs; matching housing types to needs; maintaining affordability; supervising construction; consulting with local…

The Employment Development Department's Migrant Services Section provides temporary housing at reasonable cost for migrant farmworkers and their families. The Office of Migrant Services contracts with agencies of local government to manage programs of housing construction, operation and maintenance. Since 1965 migrant housing projects have been…

Since the late 1970s, California's rural poor (frequently immigrants and refugees) have been engaged in grassroots efforts to change the cultural and political landscapes of their communities. Told in the words of rural people, this book presents six stories of struggle and empowerment. In Yuba City, Latino and East Indian farmworkers felt that…

California, the largest employer of seasonal labor in the United States, provides low-cost housing for migrant farmworkers in 15 counties during the harvest season from April through November. In 1987, the 21st year of data collection, 27 housing centers with 2,071 housing units served 2,461 families containing 12,174 individuals. About 53% of…