Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Policies, Work, And Community: Why Idaho Farmworkers Choose To Stay, Kimberly Luna

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Idaho’s agricultural industries depend on Mexican and Mexican-American farmworkers for labor to maintain farms, crops, and livestock. Despite their important role in Idaho’s economy, many farmworkers are undocumented and live with the fear of deportation. This study explores Idaho’s Latino migration patterns since the railroad companies recruited Mexican immigrants in the early 1900s through today’s Mexican population residing in Idaho. Overall, this paper strives to explain why undocumented immigrants are planning to remain in the U.S. permanently. In an effort to collect data and understand, a survey was administered in Spanish to 102 seasonal farmworkers who had a residency of …