Georgia Faces Shortage Of Immigrant Agricultural Workers
One always hears the anti-immigrant crowd claiming the immigrant workers are taking away American jobs. The fact of the matter is Americans don’t want to do jobs like harvesting the vegetables and fruit of American agriculture. In the state of Georgia, a tough anti-immigrant law went into effect and local agriculture is suffering from a severe shortage of workers to pick the crops with concern that the crops will just rot in the fields as Suzy Khimm reports for Mother Jones magazine,
Georgia has been among a handful of states to crack down on immigration in recent months, passing “copycat” legislation similar to Arizona’s sweeping law. Now Georgia’s farms are complaining that they will soon face labor shortages because immigrants are now reluctant to come to the state for fear of reprisal. According to a recent survey conducted by the state’s agricultural commissioner, farmers are expected to be short some 11,000 workers over the course of the season, the =”http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/06/17/gas-farm-labor-crisis-playing-out-as-planned/” target=”_blank”>Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Georgia farmers say that immigrant workers who normally migrate from Florida for the seasonal work are staying away this year because of the new law. The measure, which takes effect in July, requires police to check the immigration status of suspects stopped for other offenses. And so far, not enough documented laborers have stepped up to take undocumented immigrants’ farm jobs, more than half of which pay an average of $8/hour and about a third of which pay from $9 to $11/hour. If the labor shortage continues, Georgia farmers will be “forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields,” says Jay Bookman, a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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