Migratory Patterns

Home | Education | Healthcare | History | Migratory Patterns

Law & Activism | Bibliography | Image Gallery

This map details the migratory patterns of migrant farm workers in the United States. The "hubs" exist in the Southwest United States, Texas, and Florida. From these locales, some migrant farm workers tend to disburse to other parts of the country, namely the Northwest, Midwest and Northeast. Additionally, the seasons dictate their direction to a great extent.

Statistical Facts:

• Each year over 1.3 million migrant farm workers and their families labor in America 's fields and orchards, 900,000 of which are the actual workers.

• Of these 900,000, one third choose to follow the harvest (mostly single men) while the remaining two-thirds set up homebase and work for a single employer in one place.

• Farm workers earn an average of $7,500 per year, for undesirable and often unsafe jobs.

• Over two-thirds of migrant households and eighty percent of migrant children live below the poverty level.

• Today, 2 out of 10 migrant farm workers were born in the United States. The remaining eighty percent was comprised of immigrants, ninety percent of which come from Mexico.

• The three states with the largest number of migrant farm workers are California, Florida, and Texas (38).