Michigan Growers Urged to take Part in Survey on Migrant Labor
Associate Editor
Miklavcic, who works primarily with professors Rick Bernsten and Lindon Robison, said 50-100 pickle growers, 300-400 blueberry growers and 300-400 apple growers will receive the survey in the mail. She urges growers to take part in the survey that takes 20-30 minutes to fill out.
“The purpose of the survey is to learn about the migrant labor needs of growers and whether or not their needs are being met,” Miklavcic said. She said she will be able to compare survey results with another survey this fall focusing on the perspective of migrant workers from Texas who work in Michigan. That survey is being administered by the Julian Samora Research Institute (JSRI) at MSU.
The U.S. General Accounting Office reported in 1997 that no shortage of migrant farm labor exists despite the perception that the labor supply no longer meets grower demand.
“We picked these three crops because blueberries and pickles respectively accounted for 32% and 23% of national production, whereas apples account for 47% of Michigan’s fruit production value.”
Survey coordinators say this study is important for two main reasons – 1) Michigan’s ag industries rely extensively on migrant workers to harvest their labor intensive crops. An increasing shortage of workers implies an inability to harvest crops on time, incurring potentially heavy financial losses to growers; 2) Congress intermittently considers legislative changes that could significantly influence the farm labor supply. A proposal attached to a bill that failed in 1998 would have ensured a steadier flow of legal migrant farm workers nationwide while also requiring growers to pay higher wages and improve living conditions. Many felt this legislation would have led to higher prices, potentially reducing the competitiveness of U.S. produce.
Survey coordinators say there is no concrete data available to estimate the distribution of migrant labor in Michigan’s fruit and vegetable industries, which makes this study particularly relevant.
The results from the survey will attempt to address the following questions:
1. How do the apple, blueberry, and pickle subsectors in Michigan differ in terms of their recruitment and retention of migrant farm workers?
2. How do large, more financially secure farms in Michigan differ from smaller, less financially secure farms in their ability to recruit and retain migrant farm workers? Does the same scenario hold across subsectors?
3. How do wage scales, housing opportunities, and other perks for migrant farm workers contribute to real wages received and how do these real wages vary by subsector? Also, how do these real farm wages compare to non-farm wage opportunities in today’s healthy economy?
4. What role does social capital play in migrant farm labor recruitment and retention? For example, how do repeat positive (or negative) interactions between growers and migrant farm workers influence the ability of growers to attract sufficient labor to their farms?
5. To what extent do repeated interactions between growers and migrant farm workers lower the transaction costs associated with locating and retaining migrant labor?
6. How do the perceptions of growers and migrant farm workers differ with respect to the recruitment and retention practices of apple, blueberry, and pickle growers?
7. How much of a migrant farm worker’s Michigan earnings are returned to the state of Michigan through local purchases?
Support for this survey comes from the MSU Department of Agricultural Economics, MSU Agricultural Experiment Station and the Julian Samora Research Institute.
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