California Growers Lose Bumper Crop of Immigrant Farmers

Los Angeles Times ^ | Wednesday, August 24, 2005 | Solomon Moore

[brytlea]

It's great to be multi lingual. However, it should not be a prerequisit to working in virtually any sector of our labor market. I should NOT have to become bilingual at my age because our government refuses to protect our borders from invasion. BTW one of my sons is fluent in Spanish, another is fluent in German.
susie

[Euro-American Scum]

CA should and could be in the business of developing robotic harvesters and exporting these around the world.

Only if they're engineered in India and manufactured in China.

[brytlea]

I pulled it out of my butt, basically.

That's just gotta hurt!

susie

[US_MilitaryRules]

I noticed that. I guess assembly line workers at GM, Ford , etc... are auto manufacturers! lol

[brytlea]

It seems (just from my observations here in S. FL) that many Haitians end up with tech type jobs. At least those I've come across.
susie

[Clemenza]

Who do the Aussies use?

Filipinos, if memory serves.

[Clemenza]

The Haitians dominated the landscaping and dishwashing jobs in South Florida during the 1980s and 1990s. As immigration from Haiti has dropped off, the Guatemalans seem to have taken their place.

I don't know if you noticed, but many of the Guatemalans don't even speak Spanish as a first language, they speak Quiche Mayan.

[brytlea]

The only Guatamalan I know is my neighbor, and she speaks Spanish and English.
susie

[Howlin]

Evidently they don't want those jobs:

They cite unemployment rates exceeding 20 percent in rural towns such as Huron and Mendota (both in Fresno County), suggesting that the problem isn't so much the supply of workers but their willingness to work under the current wages and conditions.

[Howlin]

If Mexicans do not pick crops someone will invent a machine that does.

That could very well be one of the dumbest posts I've ever seen on FR.

[Clemenza]

I was referring to the guys who you see doing landscaping. I know that the last time I went to visit my parents in Boca, I was surprised to hear Quiche instead of Haitian Creole like I used to hear when I went down there.

Middle and upper class Guatemalans tend to speak Spanish. The poor, particularly the rural poor, speak various indigenous languages (Guatemala is about 55% Indian, 38% mixed race).

[U.H. Conservative]

Got stats?

[Clemenza]

Nope. Quoting from memory.

[Know your rights]

just take the cost of fuel, for instance, and what kind of impact it would have on the price of food if there weren't "official" subsidies and "unofficial" subsidies

What kind of subsidies does fuel get?

[hispanarepublicana]

food subsidies not fuel subsidies

[Know your rights]

not fuel subsidies

Then the cost of fuel would have no more impact than it does now.

[Doohickey]

Either that, or a lawyer gin.

[hispanarepublicana]

subsidies cover the difference between what the farmer is paid by the marketplace and the cost of production. high fuel prices bring up the cost of production.

[Know your rights]

All costs look more burdensome in the absence of subsidies, I guess.

[hispanarepublicana]

Burdensome, yes. But the cost will be passed on to the consumer, and the government for some reason doesn't want the American consumer to pay or know the true cost.