Latinos, Immigration, and the Entrepreneurship Spirit

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on June 14, 2007

At our Northfield area YMCA board meeting last night, I was in charge of our usual “moment for mission”, we rotate this task and we are free to choose a topic to reflect on.

For as much as I tried to explore different issues, the Latino immigrants and their stories just kept coming back. Maybe this is because it dominates so much our the current public discourse, maybe it is because it is such as hot political issue, or maybe it is because I am a first generation immigrant myself. I came to the U.S. in August of 1992, but have kept goin back to either live or visit Guatemala frequently and have been able to keep the immigration perspective from both ends.

During my last trip to Guatemala last month, I went to visit my older brother who is 52, and has an advanced case of cancer. I did not know that visiting him was going to turn into an amazing experience directly related to Latin American immigrants. He happens to know detailed stories of immigrants coming from countries South of Guatemala in transit through our region (the department of Petén in the northern part of Guatemala). Our visit turned into a tour of the immigration route, this route is full of spots where local police are known to force bribes from immigrants in exchange for letting them pass through, stories abound regarding the suffering of immigrants in transit. Sometimes, depending on the political conditions, they are deported back to their countries directly from Guatemala, which is technically still the begining of their journey.

Back here in Northfield, when I think of a moment for mission, I cannot stop thinking of our local Latino population, how it needs to continue to develop and integrate into the wider society in a sustained way. One key strategy I know well is entrepreneurship development as a way to tap into natural leaders who can also take initiatives that further the economic development of our community together with the leadership aspect. With economic development comes more interactions with the wider community, free time to participate in sports and other community activities and most importantly, more available resources so that the next generation is being educated and given opportunities to thrive.

My moment for mission back at the boadroom at the Northfield Hospital where our YMCA board meets turned to sharing some facts about one sector of the Latino population in the U.S., the seasonal and migrant farm workers. I believe that this information may be useful for other folks out there so here is my moment for mission shared with you.

Moment for Mission, June 13, 2007

Facts taken from: Centro Campesino Farmworker Center, Inc. (www.centrocampesino.org) Florida City, Florida

- There are currently 4.2 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the united states
Ensuring that consumers nationwide have fresh green beans in December affordably

· - These diligent workers make it possible for us to pay a mere 9% of our income on food, less than any other nation in the world.

· - They often toil 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week during harvest season.

· - Their average income is $7500 a year.

· - They provide the labor force for an industry that both experience and surveys show that area residents are unwilling to work.

· - 81% of all farmworkers are foreign born

· - 77% are from Mexico, a tradition that dates back to the early 1940’s with the “braceros” program designed to bolster our work force as “soldiers in the fields and railroads” to help the U.S. win World War II.

· - These workers depend in part on programs like the H-2A guest workers plan.

· - The average farmworker age is only 31 years (given physically demanding labor and high exposure to pesticides, which makes agriculture one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States).

· - There is only a 50.7 % high school graduation rate among migrant teenagers.

These and many other facts represent the evidence about one sector of the Latin American immigrants in the United States, these are people who deserve credit for what they do for this country’s wealth creation, for what they contribute to the federal and state economies which represents a large subsidy to corporations through the supply low waged workers, and a key factor in the low price of food at the store.

Our moment for mission at the YMCA: The least we can do as recipients of the benefits that Latino/a immigrants bring to this country, is treat these newest immigrants as we wish our ancestors had been treated when they were immigrants themselves “with consideration and compassion, and a concern for the integrity of their families, and the health of their spirit, mind and body”.