Migrants #2

Right. Migrants the people of the road have over the years followed a rather standard route of migration from November to May they pick crops in Florida. In May they were in Virginia and then in July it was on to New Jersey where they pick such crops as peaches cucumbers blueberries potatoes and apples. And then in November it was back to Florida. But recently that pattern has changed. We were always thought to be on the receiving state meaning that migrants would reside elsewhere ever consider that their permanent home base and then travel to New Jersey to pick the crops. But through our increased recruitment efforts we're finding that we are in fact. Sending state also we have my family reside in urban areas then travel out during the seasons around the rest of the country have allowed cuts in return but they designate New Jersey as their home base state.

Migrants have decided to settle in New Jersey for a number of reasons migrant program officials say the only reason the people who live in the. North east is. Heard of Medicaid is that their their jobs will get public assistance. Also below. Where the role the state takes her one year before the labor Well you know the file when they come to a state like yours they're treated a lot better. There are a lot of the space between Florida and New Jersey though that would have been the state to state. Gloria Parker knows that firsthand. She and many of the other workers at the South Brunswick township farm have opted to remain in New Jersey year round. People live. White Why do you think that is. Because it is migrants deciding to settle in New Jersey are more and more often choosing life in the city rather than life on the farm.

We find that less and less migrants are actually residing on farmer's property because of stricter regulations. Farmers are not. Terribly excited about providing housing it's an expensive proposition so we find less and less of the workers living on the climbs. More than living in private rural areas. And surprisingly so we're finding more and more migrants in the city. Should form find themselves short workers they will often bus these inner city migrants to the fields otherwise these migrants will carpool take city buses some of them even known to ride their bicycles to work. Still I move from the farm to the city does not always mean a better life. Most migrants aren't prepared for life in the inner city. That's like being in a jungle. If you I mean you are not because of the city itself but if you are used to a farmer living on a farm camp and you find yourself going to live in a city where. Well I know a. Lot of the. Stuff. From a.

Fan. In jail. What's Well what do you do. With the boys and they were smoking pot or something like this. He wasn't smoking it he was just there are things that urban children. Are. Familiar with. The things they know what to look out for that these children don't. You know not to say they're so naive they don't know anything about. They know that dope and so on exists but they don't know how to code themselves away from it because they're not used to that kind of environment. Therefore not surprisingly when migrants and former migrants make the move to the city many decide to live in the same project or development. The Rivera family is a prime example. Hector Rivera did farm work in Puerto Rico and then migrated to Vineland some 10 years ago to continue his farm work. Four years ago Rivera traded the life of a migrant for that of a quarry worker. His family is still entitle to migrant benefits for five years after he stops working as a migrant and during that period of adjustment the Rivera settled in a New Brunswick development where other former migrants a bit.

Hong. Just more opportunity it's a better life there's more security and you can find that with mostly all the migrants that leave the streams come into a city but not all migrants in New Jersey have yet to choose the city way of life in many parts of South Jersey migrants still live on the farm and there the bulk of the migrant workers are single males many of whom make their way to South Jersey as early in the season as April. No one knows just how many migrants there are in New Jersey estimates range from as he was 250 to as many as 20000. The great disparity mainly the result of definitions of just what constitutes a migrant. The Department of Labor only calls traditional migrants migrants. They are men who come to New Jersey from the south to follow the crops. Other farm workers are either label today home workers or Puerto Rican contract workers. New Jersey's migrant education programs use the broadest definition of a migrant a definition that includes workers who move from the farms to the city and those who work in fishing.

Food processing forestry industries as well as agriculture. All in all migrant wages are still low. Most make the minimum wage at three dollars and thirty five cents an hour. And in some cases only get paid by the piece migrants in some parts of the state are only paid $5 to fill one of these apple crates on the average it takes a full 10 hour day to fill three of the crates. Wages are low but for many migrants the jobs here are still better than the situation back home in Puerto Rico. This year seems to have been a lot of problems not one week ago. Less jobs a lot of people are coming down to get better jobs working the farms. Later in November they are collect their unemployment insurance and now they go back and collect them one week when they're with the family. It was the season starts they come down make their own money have enough money on just down the line and they come back. Migrants who want to leave the farm life can count on aid from the farm workers corporation of New Jersey.

But making a goal of a job in a factory is not an easy task. What's more migrants who choose to settle in New Jersey often find they're caught in the welfare cycle. Yeah I do a lot to get on welfare but when they go into the city to do the right lot. Trying to do really most you know. It is a very end up on welfare. But I don't think. Really what they would like to do. We never train them to do to cope with the city life at all. They've been brought up here they came up here to do manual labor in the factories starting about 1941. They remain they've never been threatened with don't have the educational background. And it's about time that we did something about that. There are still people.