After being too shy to introduce the specific measures lobbied for the the Fruitgrowers' Association (the use of detained asylum seekers as fruipickers), the Govt turned instead to extending the denial of welfare from recent migrants to those _granted asylum_ (who can now only stay here for three years), backing it all up with a consideration of laws which will compel migrants (already accomplished with recent groups of refugees) to be moved to areas requiring rural labour. Ain't it grand?
Angela _________
> > What are proposals S1814 and 1815? And, what was the bracero programme
of
> > the 1940s?
> > Angela
>
> US Senate Bill 1814/Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits & Security Act
> would facilitate & expand use of 'temporary' agricultural workers such
> as 'non-immigrant' Jamaican sugar cane workers who 'contract' for
> seasonal harvesting work in South Florida (check out Stephanie Black's
> 1991 documentary *H-2 Worker* for look at this type of program).
>
> US Senate Bill 1815/Farmworker Adjustment Act/would 'grant' documented
> status to current undocumenteds via contract labor system.
>
> US operated Bracero Program from early 1940s to mid 1960s. Ostensibly
> initiated as WW2 measure to deal with US agricultural labor shortage,
> agreement with Mexican government provided US with guaranteed low-wage
> work force via contracting system. Controlled by post-WW2 US agri-
> business, braceros were subjected to slave-like labor camps. Several
> million such workers - many of whom were dispossessed campesinos - were
> 'recruited' into program over its two decade existence (check out The
> Farmworkers Website: http://www.farmworkers.org/ for more farmworker
> info including stuff on Farmworker Association of Florida (FAWF) that
> I've had connections to since late 1970s). Michael Hoover
>