The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler
Chapter 4: Harvest of Shame Summary and Questions by UAA Faculty Deb Periman
SUMMARY
Chapter 4, “Harvest of Shame,” details the cycle of poverty in which migrant and immigrant agricultural workers are enmeshed. With no transportation, many are effectively marooned long distances from any town. Dependent on their employers for food and housing, the costs of which are deducted from their pay, these workers live in a kind of contractual slavery. Workers are housed in cramped, filthy, inadequately ventilated cell-like rooms; their mind acceptance of these conditions is telling both about the conditions many left behind in Mexico, their vulnerability to exploitation, and their expectation for life in the United States. Their employers’ perspective of these workers as a commodity to be maintained for the good of the business, and their view of labor as a business expense to be managed within the larger context of the financial risks associated with modern agriculture is also presented. Finally, this chapter clearly portrays the physical hazards, emotional stresses, and fractured family bonds associated with illegal immigration.
QUESTIONS
1. What economic or social policies in the United States have contributed to the cycle of poverty in which agricultural workers are caught?
2. Does the United States have a moral obligation to provide welfare and health benefits to illegal immigrants? Why or why not?
3. Do illegal workers help or harm the United States economy? Does your answer to this question affect your view of the government’s obligations to these workers?
4. What should the state’s policy be toward educating the children of illegal workers, and why?
5. Should mandatory education laws be enforced if it means removing a child from the workforce and depriving his or her family of necessary income? Why or why not?
6. Is it appropriate to raise taxes to pay for health and safety inspections of migrant labor camps? Why or why not?
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