Were did we get labor before illegal immigration?

my thoughts | 8-24-11 | BUGSWOL

[BUGSWOL]

I was listening to a story on NPR this morning. The story that caught my ear was about a small farm in Alabama that was going out of business. The reason given; they couldn't get any illegal aliens to work cheap due to Alabama's new immigration law.

The gist of the story was we need more non-Whites to help the economy. Well last time I checked Alabama has plenty of non-Whites who were born there and more than half of them under the age of 25 are unemployed. Or better yet, back when I was a young man in Kentucky farmers harvested a lot of tobacco. Most of then hired a lot of college and high school students for the very labor intensive harvest. Schools adjusted their schedules to accommodate the harvest. These young men were paid well for their hard work and many used their "tobacco money" to pay their college expenses. Now college students labor in the collage financial aid office filling out financial aid forms

[RonBush]

Are there any statistics yet on the economic impact on states that have passed stricter immigration laws, like Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. I know the theories about the economic impact, but I am looking for actual statistics I can show someone else.

[ken21]

there was the bracero program.

they came over on a need-based estimate for crops.

they went home after the summer.

[RonBush]

I live in Atlanta Georgia, a huge metropolitan city and I know nothing about farming, but in south Georgia there is a problem with getting people to pick crops since we started tougher laws. The governor is getting probationers to do some harvesting, but there are problems with that:

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2011/06/22/georgia-puts-probationers-to-work-in-fields/

I favor enforcing immigration laws, but I do think we are going to have problems getting people for some farming jobs. I did a little temporary harvesting work when I was in my 20s. It is very hard and pay is very low.