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Topic: Bracero Program


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In the News (Sun 6 Dec 09)

  
  Bracero Program
The word bracero when translated means "hired hand" or "laborer" and was used to describe Mexican farm laborers brought into the United States under Public Law 45 of 1942 and 78 of 1951.
The bracero program was brought about by a call from large farms because of a labor shortage.
Francisco Villegas and Jose Jimenez, both former braceros, also expressed similar feelings about the program, and all three wish there were another program legally allowing them to come and work in the U.S. The bracero program ended on December 31, 1964, with the realization that the program had adverse effects on domestic workers.
www.epcc.edu /ftp/Homes/monicaw/borderlands/12_bracero_program.htm   (1238 words)

  
  Bracero Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bracero Program was a joint labor program initiated in August, 1942 by the United States and Mexico.
The program was designed to bring skilled Mexican agricultural laborers to the United States to fill gaps in the agriculture labor market.
The workers who participated in the Bracero Program have led sizable struggles with the US government and Mexican government to receive pensions which they were legally guaranteed but not given until they fought the respective governments in court.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Bracero_Program   (396 words)

  
 Snapshots in a Farm Labor Tradition
Program revisions in 1948 shifted the contractor role to the individual farm employer and removed from the U.S. government responsibility for guaranteeing terms of the work contract.
A major criticism of the program was that this enforcement machinery was intimidating to many aggrieved workers and insufficiently staffed to handle even the cases that were brought.
Probably contributing most to the program's ultimate termination was the sense that it was preventing normal interplay of labor supply and demand, infringing on employment opportunities for U.S. resident workers, and dragging down their wage levels.
are.berkeley.edu /APMP/pubs/lmd/html/winterspring_93/snapshots.html   (1536 words)

  
 Evaluating a Temporary Guest Worker Proposal. Vernon Briggs
In its thorough report on the bracero program in 1952, President Truman’s Commission on Migratory Labor found that “wages by States [for agricultural workers] were inversely related to the supply of alien labor.” Citizen farmworkers in the Southwest simply could not compete with braceros.
Moreover, the bracero program was a significant factor in the rapid exodus of rural Mexican Americans between 1950 and 1970 to urban labor markets, where employment and housing often were difficulty to find.
The East Coast employers preferred to keep the BWI program as it was, and hence the program continued to function according to the provisions of the Immigration Act of 1917.
www.mnforsustain.org /immg_testimony_guestworker_briggs_v.htm   (4471 words)

  
 Bracero Program: Mexican Farmworkers in the United States
The Bracero Program (1942 through 1964) was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that permitted Mexican citizens to take temporary agricultural work in the United States.
As the program proceeded, these benefits were frequently withheld from the braceros; as a result, subsequent agreements were changed to strengthen the guarantees and impose consequences on farmers who did not comply.
This use of braceros was expressly prohibited in the Bracero Program.
sunsite.berkeley.edu /calheritage/latinos/braceros.html   (493 words)

  
 Home: Bracero History Project
The group will examine the bracero program broadly, contextualizing braceros' experiences and exploring the history of the program in a variety of social and cultural contexts.
An in-depth study of the bracero program will provide windows into the history of work, immigration, race and gender relations, and the history of the U.S. in the 20th century more generally.
While bracero workers were supposed to return to Mexico at the end of their contracts, not all did go back.
echo.gmu.edu /bracero/index.php   (621 words)

  
 Home: Bracero History Project
The group will examine the bracero program broadly, contextualizing braceros' experiences and exploring the history of the program in a variety of social and cultural contexts.
An in-depth study of the bracero program will provide windows into the history of work, immigration, race and gender relations, and the history of the U.S. in the 20th century more generally.
While bracero workers were supposed to return to Mexico at the end of their contracts, not all did go back.
www.echo.gmu.edu /bracero   (621 words)

  
 Braceros Anyone?
The word Bracero roughly translates to “contract worker.” Although this was not the actual program, it does provide the historical foundation for the Bracero Program that existed from 1942 – 1964.
Braceros were not merely used to work in the fields.
One need not be fooled that the Bracero Program was a wonderful thing for both Mexican migrant workers and the U.S. It was lopsidedly in favor of the American employers.
mysite.verizon.net /edfinn3/braceros1.htm   (1221 words)

  
 [08-04-99] Jesus Martinez, Insult to Injury-- Abuses of the Bracero Program Continue 35 Years Later
Braceros, working on farms and on railroads, made it possible for the U.S. economy to meet the challenges imposed by the war effort.
Despite their contributions to the U.S. and Mexican economies, claims Gutierrez, many former braceros now live in dire poverty, abandoned by the both governments, and without even the means to claim Social Security, which was supposed to be a benefit of the program.
During the life of the Bracero Program, the workers were exploited by employers and often the targets of political attacks -- as we have seen in recent years.
www.pacificnews.org /jinn/stories/5.16/990804-bracero.html   (819 words)

  
 America on the Move | Opportunity or Exploitation: The Bracero Program
The Bracero program fed the circular migration patterns of Mexicans into the U.S. Several groups concerned over the exploitation of Bracero workers tried to repeal the program.
Participation in the Bracero program was limited to agricultural workers, and not open to urban dwellers.
Prospective Braceros often were asked to show their calloused hands to prove that they were experienced farm laborers.
americanhistory.si.edu /onthemove/themes/story_51_5.html   (357 words)

  
 Book Review
Craig's book is an analysis of the program from its inception in the first year of World War II to its liquidation at the close of 1964.
If the Galbraith theory is sound, the bracero program does seem to be a good example of how, in a pluralistic society, a pressure group finally will be counterbalanced by its opposite.
The latter is also interesting as a sympathetic treatment of the bracero program, chiefly from the standpoint of the succour it represented for Mexican agricultural labor.
www.sandiegohistory.org /journal/73winter/br-bracero.htm   (578 words)

  
 The Bracero Program at Gustavo Rojo Dot Com   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Marcelino Dueñas, my grandfather and a bracero, mentioned to me that when they first arrived at a labor camp, they were forced to undress, and they were sprayed with high powered water hoses in order to cure them of any Mexican disease that they might carry.
The bracero program was a success for U.S. agriculture, reducing the number of food shortages during the war.
The use of a new bracero program would be a slap in the face of labor rights, because not only would it create a surplus of labor, depressing wages further than they already are for farm-workers, but it would not leave agribusiness liable to pay benefits (very minimal) such as unemployment insurance and health insurance.
www.gustavorojo.com /2004/03/18/the-bracero-program   (1177 words)

  
 SOUTHWEST GOVERNORS CALL FOR REVIVAL OF BRACERO PROGRAM
The bracero program, which was begun in 1942 to replace US workers who were fighting in World War II, ended in the 1960s following the release of a well-known documentary “Harvest of Shame,” in which noted journalist Edward R. Murrow focused on the abuses of the program.
The conditions for workers in the bracero program were often harsh, and when workers would complain, employers would call the INS and have them deported.
Many also criticize the bracero program for creating patterns of immigration that remained in place after the program was ended, leading to high levels of illegal immigration to and from certain regions.
www.visalaw.com /99oct/23oct99.html   (428 words)

  
 Center for Immigration Studies
These have the potential to dwarf the Bracero program, since there are some 3 million Mexican illegals already here, and Gramm's proposal would not be limited to agriculture.
The period from 1960 to 1975 -- roughly from the end of the Bracero program to the beginning of the mass illegal immigration we are experiencing today -- was a period of considerable mechanization, with the average labor hours per acre used in harvesting fruits and vegetables dropping by about 20 percent.
A new guest-worker program, or continued official acquiescence to illegal immigration, is likely to continue this downward trend.
www.cis.org /articles/2001/msk02-25-01.html   (1056 words)

  
 Peel an Orange, Contemplate History…
Braceros earned less than $500 a year, were limited to industries like agriculture and the railroads and could not join unions.
The Bracero Program not only failed many braceros, who often "skipped" out of their contracts, but failed to staunch the flow of illegal aliens as most thought it would.
Because braceros were often hired as strikebreakers (a violation of the bracero agreement, but never enforced), it was impossible to organize domestic farm workers until the program came to an end.
www.ustrek.org /odyssey/semester2/031001/031001irenebraceros.html   (1529 words)

  
 Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley
In this article Fast Track to the Past arguing against a new Bracero Program, David Bacon describes many of the abuses that occurred during the original program.
Listen to elderly Mexicans who participated in the Bracero Program explain how the Mexican government swindled them out of money that was deducted from their wages in the NPR segment Bracero Program.
The article “Insult to Injury – Abuses of the Bracero Program Continue 35 Years Later” examines the problem of missing wages owed to former Bracero workers.
socrates.berkeley.edu:7001 /Outreach/education/migrations2003/bracero.html   (523 words)

  
 Case Study
Due to the unique status of the Bracero program, an agreement that required concessions of the importer versus the exporter, it is difficult to categorize it as a regular trade measure.
Braceros had to be "licensed" in that they were registered with the FSA, assigned to employers and required to carry laborer identification at all times.
Braceros had a direct impact on the U.S. agriculture's ability to maintain and improve their competitiveness throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
www.american.edu /projects/mandala/TED/bracero.htm   (2527 words)

  
 The Maquiladora Industry and the Bracero Program
The Mexican government initiated the Border Industrialization Program in 1965 as a response to the demise of the "Bracero Program" by the U.S. government in 1964.
The "Bracero Program" had allowed Mexican agricultural workers (mostly migrating northbound from the interior of Mexico) to work legally in the U.S. on a seasonal basis.
After the end of the "Bracero Program" the Mexican government was forced to implement the Maquiladora Program to alleviate the rising unemployment burden along the border.
www.madeinmexicoinc.com /maquiladora_overview.htm   (815 words)

  
 Chapter Fifteen   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
The Bracero program is one of the several instances in which the U.S. government became a supplier of labor in direct competition with the usual supply and demand situation.
Although the Bracero program ended in December 1964, figures from 1966 to 1968 correspond to aliens admitted and reported under the same category which entitles the table.
While it is true that the Bracero program was begun as an emergency measure to help the United States during the war, a legitimate and laudable aim, one cannot help but ask why the program lasted so long when the war itself lasted only from the end of 1941 to the summer of 1945.
www.jsri.msu.edu /museum/pubs/MexAmHist/chapter15.html   (6059 words)

  
 A New Bracero Program for the 21st Century   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Under the guise of a generous amnesty program for undocumented immigrants, U.S. agribusiness and its political allies on Capitol Hill have fashioned an updated version of the infamous bracero program under which millions of Mexican farm workers provided low-wage labor in U.S. fields for more than two decades after World War II.
Under the original bracero program of 1942-1964, farm hands were funneled from impoverished rural communities in Mexico to this country’s fields, where they toiled for extremely low wages until their contracts (which were in English) expired and they were forced back across the border.
Similarly, "amnesty" is held out as a carrot to the most exploited subgroup of the immigrant labor force—the undocumented—under the condition that they remain almost as indentured labor by staying in their low-paying jobs for five years and enduring a quasi-legal status that can be terminated at any moment.
www.crlaf.org /coha1814.htm   (1004 words)

  
 The Story of a Bracero   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
The old program for bringing contract workers from Mexico, which started during World War Two, was finally ended as a result of a massive outcry in 1964.
Braceros not only went on strike (and suffered deportation as a result), but their experiences laid the groundwork for later strikes by the UFW, when those same workers came back after the program was abolished.
As the country begins to debate whether or not to move towards a new bracero program, it's important to look at what happened in the old one.
dbacon.igc.org /Imgrants/24BraceroStory.htm   (2187 words)

  
 Mexican workers want money lost after WWII
The bracero program was born in 1942 of an accord between the governments of the United States and Mexico to send Mexican field workers and other Mexican manual laborers to America to fill in for American workers who fought in World War II.
At the center of the debate is the 10 percent deduction the braceros' employers made on their workers' wages from 1942 to the end of 1945.
The hallways of his migrant workers center are lined with stacked boxes of original bracero documents, entrusted to him by former braceros and their families -- old photographs, war ration books, standard contracts, a few bank receipts and letters of recommendation from farmers.
www.azcentral.com /news/border/articles/0317braceros.html   (1281 words)

  
 VDARE.com: 03/23/04 - Vicente Fox And The Braceros: Hypocrisy And Fraud
The Bracero program was a guest labor scheme in which 1-2 million Mexican laborers worked temporarily in the United States.
When the program was first negotiated, one of the Mexican demands was that braceros laboring in the U.S not be subject to racial discrimination, i.e., that they be treated like whites and not like fls.
Anyway, the braceros working during the 1940s had what was potentially the sweetest deal.
www.vdare.com /awall/the_braceros.htm   (909 words)

  
 National Foundation for American Policy
Operating from 1942 to 1964, the bracero program allowed Mexican farmworkers to be employed as seasonal contract labor.
After the 1954 enforcement actions were combined with an increase in the use of the bracero program, illegal entry, as measured by INS apprehensions at the border, fell an astonishing 95 percent between 1953 and 1959.
The bracero program had its flaws, including evidence that there were employers who treated workers poorly and that a large number of bracero workers never received withheld wages.
www.nfap.net /researchactivities/articles/washpost.aspx   (500 words)

  
 Guest Worker Programs for the 21 st Century
The second Bracero program was a series of agreements between Mexico and the United States under which some 4.6 million Mexicans were admitted to work on U.S. farms between 1942 and 1964.
The H-2 program operated alongside the Bracero program, allowing farmers along the eastern seaboard to import Jamaican and other workers to hand cut sugar cane in Florida and pick apples in the Northeast.
Like the Bracero program, farm employers who wanted to employ H-2 workers had to convince the U.S. Department of Labor that U.S. workers were unavailable at government-set wages and to provide the foreign workers with free housing and contracts that spelled out their rights and responsibilities.
www.cis.org /articles/2000/back400.html   (2043 words)

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