Migrant is a relative status which historically has been quite diverse, not only in origin and makeup, but in style. The trends in migrant workers' status and method of operation by broad historical epochs are described. Wherever the migrant is, he has wandered there through a series of circumstances, identities, and relationships which have seriously altered the very nature of this population. Emphasis is placed on what has happened since the Civil War (when an economic style opened the door for more extensive mobility among farm laborers) and the impact of "modern history" (especially industrialization). The document covers: (1) farm laborers in Colonial America, (2) migrant workers in the West and Southwest (beginning in the 1800's), and (3) the migrant worker since World War II. Hope for migrant workers, a minority group with little power, may lie in unionization, although the unwillingness of the government to enforce labor laws is only one part of the problem in making these efforts effective. Some other difficulties are: (1) low educational levels, (2) the inability of workers to settle for "deferred gratification", (3) the lack of effective leadership, and (4) the incongruent life style inherent in the concept of the "organized transient". In summary, the migrant situation is anything but clear and predictions are hazardous. Whether those remaining in the migrant stream can ever move out of this status depends on a number of variables, i.e., if the economy can absorb them and if they are not completely eliminated from agricultural pursuits by industrialization. (KM)