Psychology Commons^™

Documenting Working Experiences Of Agricultural Workers In California, Alvaro Medel-Herrero, Natalia Deeb-Sossa, Monica Torreiro-Casal, Martha Shumway, Joseph D. Hovey, Rosemary Sokas

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over 800,000 Latina/o agricultural workers are employed in California every year, of whom approximately 400,000 are estimated to be undocumented immigrants. We convened 19 focus groups (FG) between July 2019 and January 2020 in various regions of California to gather information from Latina/o agricultural workers on social stressors. The participants’ narratives focused extensively on working conditions. This paper analyses these narratives and examines working and living conditions, as well as the combined effect of profound deprivations within most significant social domains. Agricultural workers in California characterise their working conditions as little better than slave labour. Systematic abusive practices and exploitation, …