# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From the moment you walk through the door of Jagdeep Nayyar's restaurant near I-81 in Central Pennsylvania, it's clear who his customers are.

The cashier's stand is fashioned from the front panel of a real Tata truck - the best-selling brand in India.

"Every American food is available on every exit," Nayyar tells NPR in an interview. "So it came to my mind, why not open an Indian restaurant?"

A few years ago, Nayyar closed the Subway franchise that used to occupy this truck stop near Harrisburg and Hershey, and opened My Taste Of India. It's one of a growing number of roadside restaurants around the country that cater primarily to truckers with roots in the northwest Indian state of Punjab.

Employers in the U.S. are struggling to fill roughly 11 million open jobs. The pandemic gets most of the blame, but there's a related factor that gets less attention. Fewer immigrants are coming to fill those jobs - particularly in some key industries that keep the economy moving.

The U.S. economy is missing more than 1 million immigrant workers because of the pandemic

"If you can't get the key workers you need, the whole industry slows down. And the whole economy slows down," says Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council.

Robbins says the U.S. economy is missing more than 1 million immigrant workers who would otherwise be here - were it not for the pandemic, and steep cuts to legal immigration during the Trump administration. And he argues that slowdown in immigration may be contributing to supply chain problems and inflation, as employers struggle to find enough workers.

"That has a real impact," Robbins says in an interview. "Not just on [workers] themselves, and not just on the industries that they are going to work on, but on the whole economy."

Some industries may be feeling this shortage even more acutely. The food service and healthcare industries, which both depend heavily on immigrant workers, have more than a million open jobs. There are hundreds of thousands of openings in the trucking and warehousing industry, where roughly one in five workers are foreign-born.

Punjabis have taken to trucking in a big way, making up as much as a fifth of the industry in the U.S.

On a recent evening, a steady stream of Punjabi drivers pulled over for dinner at My Taste Of India.

"I just stopped for the food. Here is a good Punjabi restaurant," said Gurtaj Singh, on his way to Kentucky. "Everything they make very nice." Singh has only been driving a truck for 15 months, he said, but has already learned where to find roadside restaurants all over the country through word of mouth.

"The Punjabi community getting into the trucking is like enormous numbers," says Raman Singh Dhillon, the head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association. "It's in the blood."

In Fresno, Calif., where Dhillon lives, there's a longstanding Punjabi community. Over the past decade, Dhillon says, Punjabis have taken to trucking in a big way, and now make up as much as a fifth of the industry nationwide.

But Dhillon says that growth has been limited in the last few years, as the coronavirus put the brakes on the U.S. immigration system.

"There's a whole lot of people that should have entered the country legally [who] were not able to enter. I have several people around me that their family members are stuck in India because their interviews are not done," he says. "And a lot of these newcomers, when they come in, their preferred industry to join is trucking."

It's widely agreed that fewer immigrants entered the U.S. labor force last year - but not everyone thinks it's a problem.

Immigration restrictionists welcome the slowdown

"My point is, that's good. Labor tightness is good," says Roy Beck, the founder and president of NumbersUSA, a nonprofit in the Washington, D.C., area that pushes for lower levels of immigration, and the author of a new book called Back Of The Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth.

"It is proven that you tighten the labor market and wages go up. It always happens," Beck says. "The fact that we had one year of less immigration contributed to that. And that's good. It's one of the most positive things that could happen for tackling economic inequality."

Beck argues that too much immigration hurts native-born workers, particularly those with less education, though many economists say the effect is small.

By all accounts, there are other, bigger reasons for the current labor shortage - with millions of workers retiring, or reluctant to come back to work during the pandemic. But it would be a mistake to ignore the effects of immigration, says Karthick Ramakrishnan, who teaches public policy at the University of California, Riverside.

"If you had a slowdown in immigration when there's very little demand for labor, you're not going to see that much of an effect," Ramakrishnan says. But right now - with millions of job openings - Ramakrishnan says there is a lot of demand for labor. "So absolutely. The slowdown in immigration is making a difference," he says.

The absent immigrants wouldn't fill all those open jobs, he says. But they might help.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fewer immigrant workers are coming to fill key jobs. That has slowed the U.S. economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From the moment you walk through the door of Jagdeep Nayyar's restaurant near I-81 in Central Pennsylvania, it's clear who his customers are. The cashier's stand is fashioned from the front panel of a real Tata truck - the best-selling brand in India. "Every American food is available on every exit," Nayyar tells NPR in an interview.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Protecting Undocumented Workers on the Pandemic's Front Lines

Farm laborers from Fresh Harvest working with an H-2A visa maintain a safe distance as a machine is moved in Greenfield, California, on April 27, 2020. (Getty/Brent Stirton)

Introduction and summary

Across the United States, Americans continue to face the harsh reality of life amid a global pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout. More than 7 million people have lost their jobs since February 2020.¹ Americans are worrying about whether and when their children can safely return to school; they have watched their favorite restaurants close, first temporarily and then permanently; and they have been forced to spend holidays without their families and loved ones. And with cases continuing to rise, this public health crisis is far from over.

Among those Americans bearing the brunt of the pandemic and its economic fallout are 10.4 million undocumented immigrants.² At the same time, over the past nine months, millions of these immigrants have worked alongside their neighbors to keep the country functioning and safe. They have worked as doctors and nurses caring for loved ones and fighting this pandemic, but these unique times have also highlighted their crucial work as agricultural workers harvesting Americans' food; clerks stocking grocery shelves; and delivery drivers bringing food to the safety of people's homes. After decades of taking these jobs for granted, the country has come to realize just how essential these individuals and their contributions are.

The Biden administration and Congress must take decisive action to control the coronavirus pandemic and provide a path for the country to recover economically from the pandemic-induced recession. This will not be an easy task, and any approach must give special consideration to the communities hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis, including undocumented immigrants. Lack of access to health care, ineligibility for many government relief payments, and job instability leave undocumented immigrants especially vulnerable amid the pandemic.³ Providing a path to legal status for undocumented Americans is a key tool that the next administration and Congress should utilize as they work to fight the coronavirus and rebuild the country and its economy.

For years, all Americans have relied on the outsize impacts that undocumented immigrants' contributions bring to the economy. But the reality is that the U.S. immigration system has not seen meaningful reform for 30 years. For undocumented immigrants-who on average have lived in the country for 15 years-and their 10.2 million family members, the future is tenuous.

It doesn't have to be that way. Undocumented immigrants and their families are a part of the social fabric of the country. Recognizing that value first and foremost, this report looks at the role of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. workforce, their fiscal and economic contributions to the country, and how an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants-nearly 3 in 4 undocumented immigrants in the workforce-are keeping the country moving forward as essential workers in the face of the pandemic. A path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is not only the right way to honor these members of the American family, but it would ensure these contributions are not lost for all in the United States. It would also grow those contributions and help to ensure that the nation's recovery is as bold, dynamic, and equitable as it must be to meet the challenge that the country collectively faces.

Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. workforce

Undocumented immigrants make up approximately 3.2 percent of the U.S. population, but 4.4 percent of the country's workforce. There are more than 7 million undocumented immigrants working in the United States.

The same is generally true when looking at the states. In every state, undocumented immigrants make up a larger share of the workforce than they do the total population. California and Texas are home to the largest undocumented workforce, with 1.4 million and 1.2 million undocumented workers, respectively. But every state relies on undocumented workers. In 41 states and Washington, D.C., there are more than 10,000 undocumented workers, and in 16 states that total is greater than 100,000.
Table 1

The next sections of this report discuss the sectors in which undocumented immigrants play a particularly large role and which of those occupations are likely to see the most growth in the future.

Looking at undocumented workers by industry and occupation

This report categorizes industries based on the 2017 North American Industry Classification System and occupations based on the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification system.⁸

First, consider the data at the broad industry level-groups of workers in different settings who fit into similar categories. More than 1.4 million undocumented immigrants work in construction, accounting for 13 percent of all construction workers. Nearly 1 million immigrants work in accommodation and food services, approximately 8.4 percent of all workers in the industry. Meanwhile, 710,000 undocumented workers make up 10 percent of the administrative and support and waste management industries, and another 489,000 undocumented workers in nonpublic administration services are also overrepresented in the field. (see Methodological Appendix)

When it comes to broad occupational categories, again aggregating many different roles into generalized groupings, undocumented immigrants are overrepresented in six categories, aligned closely with the industries mentioned previously. Approximately 25 percent of workers in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations are undocumented, as are 16 percent of workers in construction and extraction occupations; 15 percent of workers in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations; 8.7 percent of workers in food preparation and serving-related occupations; 7.7 percent of workers in production occupations; and 5.6 percent of workers in transportation and material moving occupations. (see Appendix Table 2)

Occupational data can be especially rich at more detailed levels. Table 2 shows the 15 largest occupations for undocumented immigrants, 14 of which have more than 100,000 workers.

Nearly 1 in 5 landscaping workers, maids or housekeepers, and construction laborers are undocumented immigrants. Nearly 30 percent of agricultural workers or painters are undocumented.

The undocumented agricultural workforce

This analysis uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), and there is an important item to note about the survey with respect to agricultural workers. The ACS is administered throughout the year, which poses difficulty for capturing highly seasonal work such as agriculture. Depending on the time of year a respondent completes the survey, the ACS likely undercounts the actual number of workers in the sector. Combined with the ACS' difficulty in measuring certain populations, including undocumented immigrants, the estimate of undocumented farmworkers presented here is likely to be lower than reality.⁹ To that account, the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture estimates that there are 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States, compared with the ACS' estimate of 1.6 million, and the U.S. Department of Labor's National Agricultural Workers Survey finds that 49 percent of workers in the field are undocumented.¹⁰

Table 2

Looking toward the future

Each year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes lists of the 20 fastest-growing occupations and the 20 occupations projected to have the most job growth over the next decade, several of which have sizeable undocumented populations.¹¹ Although published amid the pandemic in September 2020, these projections recognize that the U.S. economy will at some point recover and the basic demographic changes facing the country are inevitable. As Baby Boomers across the United States continue to age, the country will need more care workers to meet the needs of the aging population The BLS projects that the United States will add 1.2 million new home health and personal care aides between now and 2029. It also projects large additions of fast food workers (461,000), restaurant cooks (327,000), freight and stock laborers (126,000), landscaping and groundskeeping workers (120,000), and janitors (106,000)-all occupations with already large numbers of undocumented workers.

Fiscal and economic contributions of undocumented workers

Beyond their presence in the workforce, undocumented workers make major contributions to the U.S. economy through the taxes they pay and their spending. Center for American Progress analysis finds that each year, undocumented workers and their households pay $79.7 billion in federal tax contributions and $41 billion in state and local tax contributions. These tax dollars fund public schools, infrastructure repairs for roads and bridges, and the military. Immigrants are not just economic producers, but consumers as well.¹² These households hold $314.9 billion in spending power, and every grocery or small-business purchase made is money that is infused into local economies. Undocumented immigrants own 1.6 million homes, paying $20.6 billion in mortgage payments each year, while other undocumented workers pay $49.1 billion in rental payments annually.

On top of their federal tax contributions, undocumented workers also buoy the social safety net; their employers annually contribute payroll taxes totaling $17 billion for Social Security and $4 billion for Medicare, for which undocumented immigrants are ineligible. For state-level data, please see Appendix Table 3.

A note about the data

The data presented in this report come from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 and 2019 1-year ACS public use microdata, which include the most recent data available but does not account for the millions of Americans-both U.S.-born and foreign-born-who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and its economic devastation. Undocumented status further clouds the understanding of employment losses among these immigrants during the pandemic because the lack of immigration status places such individuals at heightened risk of being exploited. Undocumented immigrants are simultaneously vulnerable to being coerced into accepting dangerous work situations and may be among the first workers to be laid off, particularly if they raise concerns.¹³ Regardless of their current work status, this report analyzes the undocumented U.S. workforce as it existed before the pandemic-induced economywide job losses.

The most important thing that the next administration and Congress can do for the American people is to put the country on a path to recovery. Legalizing undocumented immigrants will advance this effort in myriad ways. As this analysis shows, undocumented workers are valuable contributors to the workforce and the economy, and legalization will provide greater security for millions of individuals in the workforce who are playing an essential role during the current pandemic. But these workers are also family members to millions and neighbors to even more. A pathway to citizenship for these individuals ensures not only that the undocumented community will not be left behind as the economy rebounds, but also that they can fully participate in and contribute to the recovery.

Undocumented immigrants on the front lines of the pandemic response

In March 2020, as the United States first recognized the coronavirus spread and state and local governments began to issue stay-at-home orders, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published guidance on essential critical infrastructure workers, introducing a list of workers in roles that were deemed vital for continuity of public health and safety.¹⁴ This first iteration of critical infrastructure focused on those workers who would still need to access their workplaces despite locally enacted shelter-at-home orders.

These workers have put their safety on the line to help other Americans. In overcapacity intensive care units, doctors, nurses, and aides have treated COVID-19 patients as the understanding of how the coronavirus spreads and how to treat it has evolved. Farmworkers have picked crops; despite outbreaks, workers in meat processing plants have continued their work; and truckers have hauled food across a network of highways to ensure there would never be a food shortage.

As of November 2020, CISA had expanded this guidance three times. Now in its fourth iteration, released in August 2020, the guidance on the critical infrastructure workforce has been broadened.¹⁷ CAP estimates that 5 million undocumented workers-nearly 3 in 4 undocumented immigrants in the workforce-were employed in these sectors at the beginning of the pandemic. Alongside their colleagues, these undocumented essential workers keep critical operations such as energy and telecommunications running, hospitals staffed, and grocery shelves stocked.

Indeed, undocumented immigrants employed in critical infrastructure work in a wide range of jobs. An estimated 1.7 million work in the nation's food supply chain-from 358,000 farmworkers and food processors to 154,000 working in supermarkets, grocery stores, and convenience stores.

Nearly one-quarter of a million-236,000-undocumented immigrants are working in a health care provision role, from 15,000 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, to 19,000 lab and diagnostic technicians, to 139,000 home health aides, nursing assistants, and personal care aides. But beyond that, another 188,000 undocumented immigrants are working as custodians, food servers, and administrative workers to keep hospitals, nursing homes, and labs functioning.
Figure 1

The latest CISA guidance attempts to balance the end of stay-at-home orders, a continuing health crisis, and a desire to take steps to jump-start economic growth, resulting in an additional 1.7 million undocumented immigrants being considered essential to maintain the nation's critical infrastructure since the guidance's inception. For example, household appliance and electronics stores, along with other stores providing household goods, were added to the list, while the construction and child care definitions were widely expanded.

Positioning the United States for recovery means including undocumented immigrants

The most important thing the next administration and Congress can do is to get the spread of the coronavirus under control and create a path for the country to recover economically from the pandemic. Legalizing undocumented immigrants in the labor force is a tool to make this happen. And recognizing that undocumented immigrants have built lives in the United States, such an effort should extend to those immigrants' undocumented spouses and minor children to preserve family unity. In the case of undocumented workers on the front lines of the pandemic, that would be 1.3 million spouses and minor children.

Regardless of their status, over the years, immigrants have shaped the course of the economy-both in recoveries from economic downturns and by supporting a positive trajectory through population growth.

Immigrants are job creators, starting businesses at a higher rate than the U.S.-born population, and they revitalize neighborhoods with local-serving businesses.²⁰ They are consumers, they seek out and create opportunities, and they increase housing values.²¹ All of these contributions remain crucial as federal and state governments face massive budget shortfalls brought about by the pandemic.²²

In part because of the demographic changes the United States faces-most importantly, the aging and retirement of the Baby Boomer generation-immigrants and their families will bolster the country's future.²³ Researchers estimate that without population growth from immigrants and their children, the working-age population in the United States would contract by 4 percent-7 million workers-between 2015 and 2035, contributing to an economic decline.²⁴ But with new Americans, along with Americans whose parents were born abroad, the working-age population will grow by 10 million.²⁵

Recognizing the essential role that undocumented immigrants have played in keeping the country running during the pandemic-as well as the important role that they will continue to play in keeping up the fight and helping the country rebuild-the U.S. House of Representatives twice passed legislation earlier this year to protect these workers. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which passed in May, and a slimmed-down version passed in October, both include provisions that would provide temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to undocumented immigrants working in the critical infrastructure roles detailed above.²⁸ Both bills also separately extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

These attempts to provide temporary legal protection are only the latest pieces of legislation offering legal status to a large population of undocumented immigrants to have passed one chamber of Congress in the past 15 years. The U.S. Senate passed large-scale legalization programs included in bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bills in 2006 and 2013. In the past two years, the House passed two additional pieces of legislation on a bipartisan basis that would provide permanent legal status to smaller groups of undocumented immigrants.

Later that year, the House passed H.R. 5038, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which, among other reforms to agriculturally related immigration, would introduce a pathway to permanent residency for longtime undocumented agricultural workers.³¹ While the House sent both of these bills to the Senate, neither bill has been brought to a vote.

Legalization, followed by a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, will have long-reaching benefits for the U.S. economy. Such reforms would increase earnings and productivity for undocumented workers, eventually leading to increased tax contributions and local spending, along with increasing job creation, wages for U.S.-born workers, and gross domestic product (GDP). ³²

While Congress should include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in future legislation, the incoming administration itself also could exercise its authority under Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to parole in place on a case-by-case basis individuals who would provide a significant public benefit to the country-for example, by continuing to work in jobs recognized by CISA as essential to the critical infrastructure of the country-or otherwise grant such individuals deferred action.³³

More than eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has not only largely ignored undocumented immigrants, but also locked their U.S. citizen spouses and children out of direct cash payments.⁴⁰ These payments were a lifeline to financial stability for many through the spring and summer, but they excluded 5.5 million U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who are spouses to or children of undocumented immigrants.⁴¹ Many undocumented individuals remain largely unable to access necessary health care.⁴² They are more likely to face wage theft and discrimination on the job, and without federally recognized identification documents, they have difficulty accessing financial institutions, exacerbating the racial wealth gap.⁴³ As workers, they are ineligible for Social Security or Medicare but pay millions of dollars into these programs each year.⁴⁴ Future recovery efforts must address status for undocumented immigrants in order to remove the structural barriers these individuals face in the United States.

Conclusion

For Americans across the country-regardless of immigration status-the coronavirus has completely upended day-to-day life. Whether working in person or remotely, facilitating virtual school lessons and caring for loved ones, the country is waiting for the pandemic to end and the economy to be headed toward recovery.

Over the past eight months, undocumented workers have already played an integral role in fighting the pandemic and keeping the country moving, and in the months ahead, the country will count on them to continue this work and contribute to the collective effort to recover and rebuild. As farmworkers, construction laborers, custodial staff, and home health or personal care aides, 7 million undocumented workers lift up major sectors of the workforce-including the 5 million on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic response. Each year, undocumented immigrants and their households contribute billions of dollars in taxes, pay billions in housing payments, and spend billions more in their communities.

As the incoming Biden administration and Congress tackle the coronavirus response and economic recovery, they cannot ignore the many ways undocumented workers keep the country running or what they mean to their families and communities. In designing legislative and administrative programs to deliver relief to all Americans and help the country get back on the path to prosperity, providing legal status to undocumented immigrants must be considered a key tool to ensure the recovery is sufficiently robust and resilient, equitable and inclusive.

About the author

Nicole Prchal Svajlenka is the associate director for research on the Immigration Policy team at the Center for American Progress. At CAP, Svajlenka works on a diverse set of immigration issues, ranging from enforcement to relief, all with a particular focus on data and quantitative analysis. Svajlenka has spent a decade working in think tanks, including at the Brookings Institution, where she conducted research on immigration, human capital, and labor markets in metropolitan areas across the United States, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she examined the relationships between federal, state, and local immigration policies. A Chicagoland native, Svajlenka holds a Master of Arts in geography from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental geography from Colgate University.

Methodological appendix

The findings presented in this report are based on CAP analysis of pooled 2018 and 2019 1-year American Community Survey microdata, accessed via the University of Minnesota's IPUMS USA database.⁴⁵

Household tax contributions and spending power estimates are based on methodology developed by New American Economy and include all households that contain an undocumented household member.⁴⁶ The tax rates applied to the microdata come from the Congressional Budget Office and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.⁴⁷ Spending power is measured as household income after federal, state, and local tax contributions; these data are based on household incomes, which are available in the ACS microdata.

The analysis calculates mortgage and rental payments for households in which an undocumented immigrant is the head of household or the spouse or unmarried partner of a head of household. Monthly payment information is aggregated from the ACS microdata.

Medicare and Social Security payments are calculated as 6.2 percent and 1.45 percent, respectively. The 7.65 percent tax that undocumented immigrants pay is included in their federal tax payments, but employers also pay an additional 7.65 percent per employee in Social Security and Medicare taxes.⁴⁸

The text box below shows the occupations and industries coded as essential based on CISA's "Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience In COVID-19 Response."⁴⁹

Occupations and industries that CISA considers part of critical infrastructure, by title and occupational code

The following industries and occupations are considered part of critical infrastructure. The coding is based on IPUMS' IND and OCC variables.⁵⁰

Occupation codes and titles

205 Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers

310 Food service managers

350 Medical and health services managers

420 Social and community service managers

425 Emergency management directors

510 Buyers and purchasing agents, farm products

1340 Biomedical and agricultural engineers

1430 Industrial engineers, including health and safety

1520 Petroleum, mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers

1600 Agricultural and food scientists

1900 Agricultural and food science technicians

2012 Health care social workers

2015 Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists

2016 Social and human service assistants

2100 Lawyers, and judges, magistrates, and other judicial workers

2105 Judicial law clerks

2145 Paralegals and legal assistants

2170 Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers

2180 Legal support workers, all other

2205 Postsecondary teachers

2300 Preschool and kindergarten teachers

2310 Elementary and middle school teachers

2320 Secondary school teachers

2330 Special education teachers

2350 Tutors

2360 Other teachers and instructors

2545 Teaching assistants

2555 Other educational instruction and library workers

3000 Chiropractors

3010 Dentists

3030 Dietitians and nutritionists

3040 Optometrists

3050 Pharmacists

3090 Physicians

3100 Surgeons

3110 Physician assistants

3120 Podiatrists

3140 Audiologists

3150 Occupational therapists

3160 Physical therapists

3200 Radiation therapists

3210 Recreational therapists

3220 Respiratory therapists

3230 Speech-language pathologists

3245 Other therapists

3250 Veterinarians

3255 Registered nurses

3256 Nurse anesthetists

3258 Nurse practitioners, and nurse midwives

3261 Acupuncturists

3270 Health care diagnosing or treating practitioners, all other

3300 Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians

3310 Dental hygienists

3321 Cardiovascular technologists and technicians

3322 Diagnostic medical sonographers

3323 Radiologic technologists and technicians

3324 Magnetic resonance imaging technologists

3330 Nuclear medicine technologists and medical dosimetrists

3401 Emergency medical technicians

3402 Paramedics

3421 Pharmacy technicians

3422 Psychiatric technicians

3423 Surgical technologists

3424 Veterinary technologists and technicians

3430 Dietetic technicians and ophthalmic medical technicians

3500 Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses

3515 Medical records specialists

3520 Opticians, dispensing

3545 Miscellaneous health technologists and technicians

3550 Other health care practitioners and technical occupations

3601 Home health aides

3602 Personal care aides

3603 Nursing assistants

3605 Orderlies and psychiatric aides

3610 Occupational therapy assistants and aides

3620 Physical therapist assistants and aides

3630 Massage therapists

3640 Dental assistants

3645 Medical assistants

3646 Medical transcriptionists

3647 Pharmacy aides

3648 Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers

3649 Phlebotomists

3655 Other health care support workers

3700 First-line supervisors of correctional officers

3710 First-line supervisors of police and detectives

3720 First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers

3725 Miscellaneous first-line supervisors, protective service workers

3740 Firefighters

3750 Fire inspectors

3801 Bailiffs

3802 Correctional officers and jailers

3820 Detectives and criminal investigators

3840 Fish and game wardens and parking enforcement officers

3870 Police officers

3945 Transportation security screeners

4000 Chefs and head cooks

4010 First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers

4020 Cooks

4030 Food preparation workers

4055 Fast food and counter workers

4110 Waiters and waitresses

4120 Food servers, nonrestaurant

4130 Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers

4140 Dishwashers

4150 Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop

4160 Food preparation and serving related workers, all other

4240 Pest control workers

4461 Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants

4465 Morticians, undertakers, and funeral arrangers

4600 Childcare workers

5220 Court, municipal, and license clerks

5250 Eligibility interviewers, government programs

5730 Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

6005 First-line supervisors of farming, fishing, and forestry workers

6010 Agricultural inspectors

6040 Graders and sorters, agricultural products

6050 Other agricultural workers

6115 Fishing and hunting workers

6660 Construction and building inspectors

6730 Highway maintenance workers

7320 Home appliance repairers

7410 Electrical power-line installers and repairers

7420 Telecommunications line installers and repairers

7800 Bakers

7810 Butchers and other meat, poultry, and fish processing workers

7830 Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders

7840 Food batchmakers

7850 Food cooking machine operators and tenders

7855 Food processing workers, all other

8600 Power plant operators, distributors, and dispatchers

8610 Stationary engineers and boiler operators

8620 Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators

9040 Air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists

9110 Ambulance drivers and attendants, except emergency medical technicians

9410 Transportation inspectors

9800 Military officer special and tactical operations leaders

9810 First-line enlisted military supervisors

9825 Military enlisted tactical operations and air/weapons specialists and crew members

9830 Military, rank not specified

Industry codes and titles

170 Crop production

180 Animal production and aquaculture

280 Fishing, hunting and trapping

290 Support activities for agriculture and forestry

370 Oil and gas extraction

570 Electric power generation, transmission and distribution

580 Natural gas distribution

590 Electric and gas, and other combinations

670 Water, steam, air-conditioning, and irrigation systems

680 Sewage treatment facilities

690 Not specified utilities

770 Construction (the cleaning of buildings and dwellings is incidental during construction and immediately after construction)

1070 Animal food, grain and oilseed milling

1080 Sugar and confectionery products

1090 Fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturing

1170 Dairy product manufacturing

1180 Animal slaughtering and processing

1190 Retail bakeries

1270 Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing, except retail bakeries

1280 Seafood and other miscellaneous foods, n.e.c.

1290 Not specified food industries

1370 Beverage manufacturing

1870 Pulp, paper, and paperboard mills

1880 Paperboard container manufacturing

1890 Miscellaneous paper and pulp products

2070 Petroleum refining

2090 Miscellaneous petroleum and coal products

2170 Resin, synthetic rubber, and fibers and filaments manufacturing

2180 Agricultural chemical manufacturing

2190 Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing

2270 Paint, coating, and adhesive manufacturing

2280 Soap, cleaning compound, and cosmetics manufacturing

2370 Plastics product manufacturing

2380 Tire manufacturing

2390 Rubber products, except tires, manufacturing

2470 Pottery, ceramics, and plumbing fixture manufacturing

2480 Clay building material and refractories manufacturing

2490 Glass and glass product manufacturing

2570 Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product manufacturing

2590 Miscellaneous nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing

2670 Iron and steel mills and steel product manufacturing

2680 Aluminum production and processing

2690 Nonferrous metal (except aluminum) production and processing

2770 Foundries

2780 Metal forgings and stampings

2790 Cutlery and hand tool manufacturing

2870 Structural metals, and boiler, tank, and shipping container manufacturing

2880 Machine shops; turned product; screw, nut, and bolt manufacturing

2890 Coating, engraving, heat treating, and allied activities

2970 Ordnance

2980 Miscellaneous fabricated metal products manufacturing

2990 Not specified metal industries

3070 Agricultural implement manufacturing

3080 Construction, and mining and oil and gas field machinery manufacturing

3095 Commercial and service industry machinery manufacturing

3170 Metalworking machinery manufacturing

3180 Engine, turbine, and power transmission equipment manufacturing

3291 Machinery manufacturing, n.e.c. or not specified

3470 Household appliance manufacturing

3570 Motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment manufacturing

3580 Aircraft and parts manufacturing

3590 Aerospace products and parts manufacturing

3670 Railroad rolling stock manufacturing

3680 Ship and boat building

3690 Other transportation equipment manufacturing

3770 Sawmills and wood preservation

3780 Veneer, plywood, and engineered wood products

3790 Prefabricated wood buildings and mobile homes manufacturing

3960 Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing

4070 Motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and supplies merchant wholesalers

4170 Professional and commercial equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers

4195 Household appliances and electrical and electronic goods merchant wholesalers

4265 Hardware, and plumbing and heating equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers

4270 Machinery, equipment, and supplies merchant wholesalers

4380 Drugs, sundries, and chemical and allied products merchant wholesalers

4470 Grocery and related product merchant wholesalers

4480 Farm product raw material merchant wholesalers

4560 Alcoholic beverages merchant wholesalers

4580 Miscellaneous nondurable goods merchant wholesalers

4690 Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores

4770 Furniture and home furnishings stores

4780 Household appliance stores

4795 Electronics Stores

4870 Building material and supplies dealers

4880 Hardware stores

4890 Lawn and garden equipment and supplies stores

4971 Supermarkets and other grocery (except convenience) stores

4972 Convenience Stores

4980 Specialty food stores

4990 Beer, wine, and liquor stores

5070 Pharmacies and drug stores

5080 Health and personal care, except drug, stores

5090 Gasoline stations

5170 Clothing stores

5180 Shoe stores

5190 Jewelry, luggage, and leather goods stores

5275 Sporting goods, and hobby and toy stores

5280 Sewing, needlework, and piece goods stores

5295 Musical instrument and supplies stores

5370 Book stores and news dealers

5381 Department stores

5391 General merchandise stores, including warehouse clubs and supercenters

5593 Electronic shopping and mail-order houses

6070 Air transportation

6080 Rail transportation

6090 Water transportation

6170 Truck transportation

6180 Bus service and urban transit

6190 Taxi and limousine service

6270 Pipeline transportation

6290 Services incidental to transportation

6370 Postal Service

6380 Couriers and messengers

6390 Warehousing and storage

6670 Broadcasting (except internet)

6672 Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals

6680 Wired telecommunications carriers

6690 Telecommunications, except wired telecommunications carriers

6695 Data processing, hosting, and related services

6770 Libraries and archives

6780 Other information services, except libraries and archives, and internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals

6870 Banking and related activities

6880 Savings institutions, including credit unions

6890 Nondepository credit and related activities

6970 Securities, commodities, funds, trusts, and other financial investments

6991 Insurance carriers

6992 Agencies, brokerages, and other insurance related activities

7680 Investigation and security services

7790 Waste management and remediation services

7970 Offices of physicians

7980 Offices of dentists

7990 Offices of chiropractors

8070 Offices of optometrists

8080 Offices of other health practitioners

8090 Outpatient care centers

8170 Home health care services

8180 Other health care services

8191 General medical and surgical hospitals, and specialty (except psychiatric and substance abuse) hospitals

8192 Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals

8270 Nursing care facilities (skilled nursing facilities)

8290 Residential care facilities, except skilled nursing facilities

8370 Individual and family services

8380 Community food and housing, and emergency services

8390 Vocational rehabilitation services

8470 Child day care services

8680 Restaurants and other food services

8770 Automotive repair and maintenance

8780 Car washes

8891 Personal and household goods repair and maintenance

9070 Drycleaning and laundry services

9470 Justice, public order, and safety activities

9670 U. S. Army

9680 U. S. Air Force

9690 U. S. Navy

9770 U. S. Marines

9780 U. S. Coast Guard

9790 Armed Forces, Branch not specified

9870 Military Reserves or National Guard

A worker is considered essential if they meet the criteria for a code in each of the following lists:

Occupation codes and titles

230 Education and childcare administrators

1821 Clinical and counseling psychologists

1822 School psychologists

1825 Other psychologists

2001 Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors

2002 Educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors

2003 Marriage and family therapists

2004 Mental health counselors

2005 Rehabilitation counselors

2006 Counselors, all other

2011 Child, family, and school social workers

2013 Mental health and substance abuse social workers

2014 Social workers, all other

2435 Librarians and media collections specialists

2440 Library technicians

4200 First-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers

4210 First-line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service, and groundskeeping workers

4220 Janitors and building cleaners

4251 Landscaping and groundskeeping workers

4252 Tree trimmers and pruners

4255 Other grounds maintenance workers

5710 Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants

5720 Legal secretaries and administrative assistants

5740 Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive

9121 Bus drivers, school

Industry codes and titles

7860 Elementary and secondary schools

7870 Colleges, universities, and professional schools, including junior colleges

7880 Business, technical, and trade schools and training

7890 Other schools and instruction, and educational support services

Appendix Table 1

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Associate Director, Research

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Protecting Undocumented Workers on the Pandemic's Front Lines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Protecting Undocumented Workers on the Pandemic's Front Lines Introduction and summary Across the United States, Americans continue to face the harsh reality of life amid a global pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's a history lesson worth remembering: The exploitation of immigrant workers only encourages more-and worse-abuse.

Wikimedia

In 1624, Jane Dickenson petitioned the governor of Virginia for relief from bondage. Four years earlier, her husband had signed a contract of indenture to pay for his immigration from England; it obliged him to labor for a man named Nicholas Hide for a period of seven years.

Before the indenture was up, however, Jane's husband was killed in the Second Anglo-Powhatan War, and she was taken captive by the Pamunkey Indians. Held for 10 months, she was finally ransomed for two pounds of beads by one of the Virginia Company's grandees. Jane now found herself bound to labor "with a towefold Chaine," one "for her late husband's obligation," the other "for her ransome." Seeking her own release, Jane testified that her indentured service "differeth not from her slavery [with] the Indians."

Stories similar to Jane's abounded in the colony, where labor for growing cash crops was perpetually scarce and turning a profit required keeping tight control over immigrant workers. English law provided indentured servants some avenues for redress, but local Virginian courts-like the one Jane appealed to-were run by their employers. Masters traded laborers and disciplined them with impunity, all with the law's support. Just a year after Jane filed her petition, the English ship captain Thomas Weston refused to carry more servants to Virginia because they were sold there "like horses."

It's a lesson as old as European settlement of the present-day United States: Treating migrant workers as property for the benefit of others leads to terrible consequences. But judging from a recent immigration-reform proposal, the country hasn't entirely learned that lesson. In a Politico piece originally titled, "What If You Could Get Your Own Immigrant?"-a headline that provoked such anger it was quickly changed-Eric Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago's Law School, and Glen Weyl, an economist at Microsoft Research New England, described a plan that amounts to reintroducing a form of bonded immigrant labor to the United States. Their idea, in essence, is to give every American citizen the right to "sponsor" an immigrant, put that person to work, and then take a portion of his or her wages.

If these two scholars at elite institutions were aware of their plan's historical precedent, they gave no indication of it. But it's clear from American history that such a proposal would be a disaster not only for immigrants, but for American democracy. Once set in motion, any policy that creates conditions for exploitative labor practices is likely only to encourage more exploitation.

The history of how indentured servitude transformed into racialized chattel slavery in America provides a particularly vivid example of this vicious cycle. In theory, colonial Virginia's intense labor scarcity ought to have meant favorable terms for migrating workers. But as Jane Dickenson learned, the men who governed the colonies changed market dynamics by imposing harsh laws that allowed them to control and capture laborers in new ways. Whereas contracts of indenture for agricultural workers in England typically ran to only one year, in America they stretched out to seven. And colonial authorities routinely punished servants who tried to escape-or simply displeased their masters-with whippings, split tongues, sliced ears, and extra years of service. As the late American historian Edmund Morgan put it, even before slavery took root, Virginia's masters were moving "toward a system of labor that treated men as things."

This still wasn't enough. As free subjects of the English crown, servants who managed to outlive their indentures could eventually obtain property and some measure of political clout. As former servants increased in number, they indeed began to challenge their former masters' authority, most famously in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. Enslaved Africans provided a dual solution to this problem. First, the importation of already enslaved laborers allowed masters to more easily treat servitude as a lifetime, hereditary status, preventing the growth of a troublesome population of the formerly unfree. Second, it made whiteness the mark of freedom, ensuring that "ordinary" English settlers identified with their social betters instead of making common cause with the new arrivals.

Still, the transition to a slave society was gradual. For several decades, Africans forcibly transported to the American colonies were not necessarily treated very differently from English indentured servants, and some achieved not only freedom but significant local prominence. The "black patriarch of Pungoteague Creek," Anthony Johnson, for example, was brought to Virginia in chains, but he was able to purchase liberty for himself and his wife, accumulate extensive land holdings, and have his testimony accepted in court. According to the historians T.H. Breen and Stephen Innes, through much of the 17th century, Johnson and other free blacks in his Eastern Shore community "experienced a kind of rough equality with their poor white neighbors."

Over time, however, and increasingly after 1700, legal codes hardened racial boundaries and entrenched chattel slavery, so that society came to be based on the principle of white supremacy. It was in this context that whiteness served to unite one portion of the population in the unmitigated exploitation of another. "Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery," wrote Eric Williams, a pioneering historian and the first prime minister of independent Trinidad and Tobago, in his seminal analysis Capitalism & Slavery. Although the economic benefits of enslaved labor flowed almost entirely to slave owners, the racialization of bondage gave every white person a social and political interest in the subordination of Africans and their descendants. In this way, the "wages of whiteness" were generalized to the majority in the white republic that emerged from the American Revolution.

The story doesn't end here. By the turn of the 19th century, gradual abolition in the North alongside slavery's massive expansion in the South opened up a fissure among whites. In 1852, the increasingly acrimonious debate over the institution's future led The New York Times to advocate the importation of indentured Chinese laborers-so-called "coolies"-as a "happy medium" between "forced and voluntary labor." These foreigners from supposedly backward places would occupy a new position on the lower rungs of the American racial hierarchy-between slavery and freedom, black and white. To moderate Northerners, the indentured workers seemed like a solution to the nation's problems.

The practice of trafficking Asian workers began in the 1830s in the British Empire. British leaders sought to alleviate labor "shortages" in the Caribbean colonies-the result of newly emancipated slaves' withdrawal from the plantation complex-by importing "excess" South Asian labor. During the 1840s, American shippers expanded the trade, transporting indentured Chinese workers throughout the Americas-but not the United States-to provide cheap labor in mines and plantations. Indenture contracts, and the bodies to go with them, were auctioned off upon arrival at port.

In 1856, the U.S. commissioner to China, Peter Parker, declared that the traffic was so "replete with illegalities, immoralities, and revolting and inhuman atrocities," that its cruelty at times exceeded the "horrors of the 'middle passage.'" Working conditions at labor sites in the Americas were no better. On the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru, trafficked Chinese workers mined guano, a fertilizer used on American farms and plantations. They labored up to 20 hours per day in a toxic environment, while bosses applied whippings and attacks by dogs as punishment for insubordination. Suicide at the camps was common. On plantations in South America and the Caribbean, experienced observers reported migrants were "treated as slaves," sometimes "worse than brutes."

By the eve of the Civil War, media exposés and government reports had publicized these abuses sufficiently to convince most Americans that the traffic was " only another form of the slave-trade," which had been banned decades before. In 1862, Congress banned the carriage of "coolies" on American vessels. The act was one of many reforms intended to fundamentally restructure American society around a liberal notion of free labor.

But while intended as a humanitarian act, the law helped solidify white Americans' prejudice against Chinese migrants of all kinds, who came to be understood as "naturally" servile because they had supposedly "allowed" themselves to be trafficked-a prejudice later deployed to justify the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and subsequently transferred to other Asian migrants. Meanwhile, the trafficking of contract laborers worldwide continued well into the 20th century. The unfree conditions it produced has no shortage of modern analogues-as historians have often noted. In 2016, for instance, the UN warned Qatar to end "migrant worker slavery," a system in which sponsoring employers wield nearly absolute power.

Common to all of these stories is the subordination of a minority group-usually made up of foreigners and other marginalized people-for the economic and social benefit of the majority, using the tools of political disenfranchisement and the impairment of legal rights. This is what makes the immigration proposal put forward by Posner and Weyl last month so alarming. Their plan aims to cut through the current immigration-policy impasse by giving working-class Americans-presumably, the white ones concerned about "illegal aliens"-a contracted property right in the labor of immigrants. It would "achieve the goals of both sides of the immigration debate," they write, by allowing immigrants into the country to the economic benefit of those already here.

But their plan seems more likely to produce an effect similar to that achieved when Virginia's colonial governors interposed whiteness between indentured English servants and enslaved Africans: That is, it would gradually establish an impenetrable social barrier between ordinary American citizens and outcast immigrant workers. Bit by bit, the United States would transform as legislators, judges, and administrators adjudicated countless matters pitting the interests of sponsoring citizens (who could vote) against the interests of immigrants (who could not). The deepening divide would corrode democracy twice over: first, by excluding immigrants from having a political voice and rights, and second, by encouraging a social hierarchy that would inevitably intensify class distinctions among citizens, too.

Personal familiarity poses no barrier to this process. Posner and Weyl naively misread history when they wrote that "it is hard to demonize the person who lives in your basement, or the basement of your neighbor, and has increased your income greatly." It may seem like common sense that proximity breeds understanding, but when a property right in others' labor is at stake, just the opposite is often the case. For most of American history, family members' labor was under the legal control of male heads of household. Abuse without redress was pervasive, despite bonds of affection.

And in regimes premised on indentured servitude and slavery, affection was no protection at all. Indeed, intimacy can make exploitation all the more oppressive. Far from treating the people living in their "basements" with care, slaveholders-who liked to call their human property "family"-regularly raped enslaved women and "unblushingly reared" their own children "for the market," as Harriet Jacobs, who escaped slavery, recounted in her 1861 autobiography.

Immigrants subordinated both economically and politically-and this, at bottom, is what Posner and Weyl unwittingly propose-would be defenseless against abuse. Like the millions indentured, enslaved, and trafficked before them, they would be despised for their very inability to resist, then abused all the more for being despicable. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, described this dynamic clearly: "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other," he wrote in the 1780s. "Our children," he added, "see this, and learn to imitate it."

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Ariel Ron is an assistant professor of history at Southern Methodist University.

Dael Norwood is an assistant professor of history at Binghamton University.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
America Cannot Bear to Bring Back Indentured Servitude

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's a history lesson worth remembering: The exploitation of immigrant workers only encourages more-and worse-abuse. In 1624, Jane Dickenson petitioned the governor of Virginia for relief from bondage. Four years earlier, her husband had signed a contract of indenture to pay for his immigration from England; it obliged him to labor for a man named Nicholas Hide for a period of seven years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Human Rights Abuse In Plain Sight: Migrant Workers in the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)Today is International Migrants Day, marking the anniversary of the passage of a United Nations resolution adopting the landmark International Convention on the

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We usually imagine migrant workers as young men who travel abroad to find jobs in agriculture, construction or restaurants. Less attention is paid to women, who also migrate; we tend to think of them as passively accompanying their husbands. In fact, more than half of the Latin American migrants to the U.S. are women searching for jobs as domestics or in light manufacturing such as garment or microelectronic factories. As global trade systems penetrate the more "traditional" segments of the world, women are participating increasingly in economic enterprises outside their homes and families; more and more women are being forced to compete for jobs in their own countries and abroad.

Women foreign migrant workers, largely from traditional societies, are having to adapt to industrial life in foreign cultures. The stresses they experience are compounded by their dual roles as workers and as mothers.

The situation of female migrants is in many ways similar to that of their male counterparts. Most workers migrate in the hope of finding steady work at wages far above what they would receive at home. Those who travel abroad are often already victims of foreign economies even before leaving home. Policies that permit agribusiness corporations to convert land being used for domestic food production to export production have displaced peasants and forced many to migrate. Global recession and austerity policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund have caused a sharp rise in third world unemployment.

Not only must women migrants from Third World countries negotiate their way amidst racial and ethnic discrimination, they are also exploited because of their sex. As migrant workers they are confined to the low skill sector of the labor market. As females they are further restricted to the manual sector like sewing or child care.

Because of their willingness to accept wages and working conditions that native-born women will not, foreign female workers are particularly desirable in the secondary sector of the economy. Not only will women work for lower wages than men, but because of the pressure of family responsibilities, they tend to be more docile and less likely to organize. Some employers have even said that feminine social, cultural and physical attributes (like nimble fingers) make women especially suited to certain kinds of detailed routine work, such as sewing garments and assembling electronic parts. Employers justify paying women low wages claiming that women only work for "pin money" or luxury items while awaiting marriage. The rationale that women are not career-minded and are not concerned with upward mobility becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Undocumented Workers in the US

There are now an estimated 3.5 to 6 million illegal workers with their families in the United States. A fear of an ever-increasing flow has incited a push for new immigration legislation. Most migrants work extremely long hours in order to accumulate as much money as possible during their stay in the U.S. Many view their situation as temporary. Others hope to bring their families to the U.S., to eventually acquire some sort of legal status here, and establish roots as countless numbers of immigrants have done. West Indian women, for example, frequently leave young children in their home country while they accumulate enough money working as nannies in the U.S. to be rejoined by their own families.

Health Problems

There is little information about the health status and needs of female migrant workers and their families. Although female migrants tend to be young and relatively vigorous, migrants generally - and especially illegal immigrants - risk ill health more than nonmigrants of comparable age and background because of low income, poor occupational safety and health conditions, poor diet, unfamiliarity with health services, and stresses generated by living in a strange and sometimes hostile environment. The constant fear of being reported, detained, and ultimately expelled exacerbates the stress, compels migrants to tolerate overpriced, crowded, substandard housing, and makes them reluctant to complain about working conditions.

Although their health is at greater risk, migrants are not eligible for basic preventive services. For instance, pregnant women without Social Security numbers are not eligible for the WIC supplementary feeding program, even though they are likely to be among those in greatest need. Reluctance to seek preventive services that are available may partially explain the resurgence of such diseases as tuberculosis in major metropolitan areas like New York City.

The tendency to delay treatment means that when migrants do go for help, the illness is more likely to be at an advanced state. At Downstate Medical Center in New York City, a screening program for cervical cancer, aimed at foreign migrant women from Haiti, found a disturbingly high proportion of women with late states of the disease. They failed to get care when the early symptoms appeared. Serious dental problems, hearing loss, and other disorders easily prevented through adequate screening programs and care are also endemic among the children of migrant workers.

Diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases disproportionately afflict migrant farm workers. Many also suffer from pesticide poisoning. Migrants to urban centers are rarely subjected to the extreme conditions found in rural areas, but their problems are dramatic nonetheless. The garment industries in New York City have attracted many Hispanic and Chinese women workers. These sweat shops are reminiscent of those in New York City at the turn of the century. The life span of these shops can be measured in months; they close before they are detected or inspected by the health and safety authorities who might fine them for being poorly lit, crowded, and badly ventilated. Most women in these factories work on a piece-rate basis, a system of payment which pressures them to produce at a rapid rate and discourages people from taking breaks. In fact women run back and forth to the bathroom so as not to lose lime. Women in these shops are commonly paid about fifteen dollars for an eight-hour day. Thus, even when the women lake breaks, they perform some other form of paid labor, e.g. hand-sewing or embroidery.

At a conference on the situation of illegal workers in New York City, a machine operator who worked in garment shops reported that with the recent cuts in public funding for child care many women had no choice but to leave their young children unsupervised at home or bring them to work and keep them in a relatively safe spot on the shop floor. In part because of inadequate, expensive child care, garment piecework done at home is re-emerging in the U.S. and other industrialized Western countries. Such work is even more poorly paid than work in the sweat shops; sometimes small children do the work as well. There is little doubt that this system increases the probability of injury at home, especially for children.

The stressful lives of these workers affects their families and others intimately connected with them. According to the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, New York, there is a disturbingly high amount of domestic violence in households of undocumented workers, commonly resulting in a high incidence of child abuse and battering.

Relatively high frequencies of emotional disorders have also been noted. For example, a substantial proportion of the patients in the psychiatric unit in Kings County Hospital, a large public hospital in Brooklyn, are Haitian migrants. Other than hospitalizing individuals when they are in acute need of care, little can be done for them since owing to language problems and lack of funds to pay for extended hospitalization, they are released back into the community as quickly as possible. The chances of finding outpatient care for such patients are extremely small.

It has been noted by some Haitian health professionals that although alcoholism among Haitian women is uncommon in Haiti, it is beginning to be a common problem among Haitian women living in the U.S. Although emotional problems result from the pressures of living in a hostile foreign environment, they may also stem from a sense of failure or rejection in the mother country where workers cannot sustain themselves or their families.

Children of foreign migrants who grow up in the U.S. may not face the same variety of infections and parasitic disease as their parents were exposed to, but, they must learn to deal with new disruptive and stressful living situations. Some mental health problems found in young children stem from the fact that they are called upon to make major adjustments in their early years. For instance, if they are born in the U.S. to working mothers of Latin American or Caribbean origin, they may be sent to their mother's home country to be brought up by relatives until they reach school age. When they return to the U.S. to begin school or pre-school classes, they frequently have problems in adapting to a new culture, language and family situation. As they reach adolescence the children of migrants must learn to cope with drugs, violence and other dangers that fall heavily on those living in impoverished conditions. And they and their families - generally their mothers - must often cope on their own, without support.

Possible Reforms

Substantial policy reforms are required to begin to address the difficulties faced by illegal workers in the United States. Unfortunately, the difficulties faced by foreign migrant wage workers stem from an all-but-intractable situation which even those individuals and institutions motivated strongly by humanitarian concerns are unable to ameliorate. For example, foreign migrants and their families will not be offered free or even affordable health care unless health care is redefined as a basic right of all, similar to education. It is hard to argue for health coverage for the 3.5 to 6 million individuals residing in the U.S. illegally when 25 to 32 million U.S. citizens have no health care insurance.

Conclusion

There is a paucity of reliable data on the situation of migrant workers and their families. This is hardly surprising since the vulnerable status of migrants makes them unwilling candidates for interviews or observational studies.

Even though they are frequently portrayed as passive victims by the press, it is clear that migrant workers have developed a range of adaptive strategies to live in a society in which they belong to an illegal underclass. We particularly need to know how women find access to essential services for themselves and their families, and how they are managing to replace the supportive family structures that they left behind. There is also a need for deeper analysis of some of the more general issues, especially those related to the social meaning and uses of legal and illegal statuses.

Policy concerning foreign migrant workers is based on broader social values and priorities. Consideration of the conditions of foreign migrants in any country raises general ethical questions concerning equity and the right to decent living conditions. Immigration policy must consider the responsibility of the industrialized core toward people who are pushed from their own countries and pulled to others by the effects of foreign and domestic policies.

Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We usually imagine migrant workers as young men who travel abroad to find jobs in agriculture, construction or restaurants. Less attention is paid to women, who also migrate; we tend to think of them as passively accompanying their husbands. In fact, more than half of the Latin American migrants to the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their "critical" role in feeding the country.

Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.

Give this article Give this article Give this article

A strawberry field in California's Salinas Valley. Credit... Carlos Chavarría for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES - Like legions of immigrant farmworkers, Nancy Silva for years has done the grueling work of picking fresh fruit that Americans savor, all the while afraid that one day she could lose her livelihood because she is in the country illegally.

But the widening coronavirus pandemic has brought an unusual kind of recognition: Her job as a field worker has been deemed by the federal government as "essential" to the country.

Ms. Silva, who has spent much of her life in the United States evading law enforcement, now carries a letter from her employer in her wallet, declaring that the Department of Homeland Security considers her "critical to the food supply chain."

"It's like suddenly they realized we are here contributing," said Ms. Silva, a 43-year-old immigrant from Mexico who has been working in the clementine groves south of Bakersfield, Calif.

It is an open secret that the vast majority of people who harvest America's food are undocumented immigrants, mainly from Mexico, many of them decades-long residents of the United States. Often the parents of American-born children, they have lived for years with the cloud of deportation hanging over their households.

The "essential work" letters that many now carry are not a free pass from immigration authorities, who could still deport Ms. Silva and other undocumented field workers at any time.

But local law enforcement authorities said the letters might give immigrant workers a sense of security that they will not be arrested for violating stay-at-home orders.

"If you have people who perceive that they may be stopped and questioned or deported because of their status, under these circumstances, having that letter makes them feel comfortable," said Eric Buschow, a captain with the sheriff's office in Ventura County, where thousands of farmworkers labor in strawberry, lemon and avocado operations. "They can go to work. And their work is essential now."

The pandemic has also put many of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's operations on hold. On March 18, the agency said it would " temporarily adjust its enforcement posture " to focus not on ordinary undocumented immigrants, but on those who pose a public safety or criminal threat.

The agency said it would not carry out enforcement actions near health care facilities "except in the most extraordinary of circumstances" and would instead focus its efforts on human trafficking, gangs and drug enforcement.

Bullet Train to Nowhere: Construction of the California high-speed rail system, America's most ambitious infrastructure project, has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare.

A Piece of Black History Destroyed: Lincoln Heights - a historically Black community in a predominantly white, rural county in Northern California - endured for decades. Then came the Mill fire.

Warehouse Moratorium: As warehouse construction balloons nationwide, residents in communities both rural and urban have pushed back. In California's Inland Empire, the anger has turned to widespread action.

"Those of us without papers live in fear that immigration will pick us up," Ms. Silva said. "Now we are feeling more relaxed."

Across the country, farmworkers have been struggling to understand what the coronavirus outbreak will mean for their safety and livelihoods. Even if they face a lower risk of deportation, many worry that the close working conditions in fields and packing facilities put them at risk for contracting the virus, and some warehouse workers are seeing their hours cut as employers adjust to the shifting market.

For many workers, the fact that they are now considered both illegal and essential is an irony that is not lost on them, nor is it for employers who have long had to navigate a legal thicket to maintain a work force in the fields.

"It's sad that it takes a health crisis like this to highlight the farmworkers' importance," said Hector Lujan, chief executive of Reiter Brothers, a large family-owned berry grower based in Oxnard, Calif., that also has operations in Florida and the Pacific Northwest.

Mr. Lujan, whose company employs thousands of field workers, described them as unsung heroes for guaranteeing that Americans have food security.

"Maybe one of the benefits of this crisis is that they are recognized and come out of the shadows," said Mr. Lujan, whose company has been lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would legalize immigrant farmworkers.

About half of all crop hands in the United States, more than one million, are undocumented immigrants, according to the Agriculture Department. Growers and labor contractors estimate that the share is closer to 75 percent.

Despite increased mechanization, the agriculture sector has continued to struggle with a dearth of labor because many fruits and vegetables must be harvested by hand to avoid bruising.

In a 2017 survey of farmers by the California Farm Bureau, 55 percent reported labor shortages, and the figure was nearly 70 percent for those who depend on seasonal workers. Wage increases in recent years have not compensated for the shortfall, growers said.

Strawberry operations in California, apple orchards in Michigan and dairy farms in New York and Idaho are wrestling with a shrinking, aging work force, a crackdown at the border, and the failure of Congress to agree on an immigration overhaul that could provide a steady source of labor. A surge in deportations and the voluntary return of many Mexicans to their home country have aggravated the shortage.

A letter provided to farmworkers in case they are stopped for violating California's shelter-in-place order.

As a result, growers increasingly have turned to a seasonal guest-worker program, officially known as the H-2A program, to fill gaps in their labor supply. The number of workers on the visa rocketed to 257,667 in the 2019 fiscal year, compared with 48,336 workers in the 2005 fiscal year.

Growers panicked after the State Department paused all visa processing in Mexico during the public health emergency. In response to an outcry, the department announced on March 26 that it would waive in-person interviews, enabling most applications to be vetted in time for the peak harvest.

American agriculture is at a critical juncture, with a massive volume of produce to be harvested between now and August. In California, citrus fruit is still being plucked off the trees, strawberries are getting underway, and many other crops will ripen in the summer. In Georgia, Vidalia onions and peaches will soon be mature. In Washington, apple trees are heavy with fruit in the summer.

Letters notifying undocumented workers that they are "essential," when they still officially face potential deportation, are sending the same mixed signals that have long been at the root of American agricultural labor policy, according to many who work closely with the process.

"Some people are really confused by the message," said Reyna Lopez, executive director of P.C.U.N., a union representing agricultural workers in Woodburn, Ore. "The government is telling them it needs them to go to work, but it hasn't halted deportations."

She and other advocates said employers are not doing enough to educate their workers, who often do not speak English, about the coronavirus."When people don't understand the risks, they don't take necessary precautions," Ms. Lopez said.

The pandemic carries particular risks for agricultural workers. Most do not receive sick pay if they fall ill, and they lack health insurance. The $2 trillion pandemic aid package that passed Congress last week does not offer any assistance to undocumented immigrants.

Armando Elenes, secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers, said that letters affirming that workers are "essential" do not substitute for "meaningful steps to stem the pandemic by protecting farmworkers with basic actions." Those would include, he said, extending sick leave to 40 hours or more, making it easier for workers to claim sick days and providing more aggressive disinfection of work areas.

Some growers, like Reiter Brothers, have trained workers on how to stay healthy, including frequent handwashing and the proper techniques for coughing and sneezing. The company has increased the number of handwashing stations in the fields and spaced out workers who are picking strawberries. The company also offers medical care.

Jim Cochran, a grower of organic berries, artichokes, broccoli and other crops in Santa Cruz, Calif., told his workers that he would keep paying them if they contracted the virus and had to miss work, even for three weeks.

But such policies are exceptions, according to the United Farm Workers.

A garage converted to house farmworkers in Mendota, Calif. Credit... Max Whittaker for The New York Times

Agricultural workers in packing warehouses and poultry plants, who often work in close quarters, are both fearful of getting the virus and worried about recent cutbacks that have threatened their ability to work.

Maura Fabian, 48, packs grapes for schools and hospitals in a warehouse in the Central Valley near Fresno, where she said that about half the workers have been let go; the others, she said, including her, have had their hours drastically cut.

Since March 16, Ms. Fabian has worked four-hour shifts most days, and been told not to report at all on other days.

She assumes that her employer has thinned the packing lines because, with schools closed, demand for packed fruit is down. The company is also trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among workers, she said.

"We're afraid of this illness. But we are more afraid that we won't be able to make a living," said Ms. Fabian, a single mother who bought a house in October, where she lives with her three children.

In Idaho, where a statewide stay-at-home order began on March 25, dairy owners are scrambling to ensure that the industry's 8,000 workers, 90 percent of them undocumented, can keep working. Even before the virus, the industry, which needs workers year-round to milk the cows, had been grappling with a labor shortfall.

Rick Naerebout, chief executive of the Idaho Dairymen's Association, said he had fielded calls from many dairy farmers worried that their workers may be unable to get to work if the authorities begin enforcing domestic travel restrictions. So he has been providing members with a template to print out on official letterhead and distribute to workers, stating that they are now considered essential workers, part of the nation's critical infrastructure.

"The fact that there is that cognitive recognition that we have to allow these individuals to travel to and from work because they are critical - that's the complete opposite of what they've heard for nearly their entire lives, that they have taken away opportunities from Americans," he said.

"At the highest level of government, now we've seen this be recognized. Whether it's formal or informal, there's this acknowledgment that, you're OK."

Caitlin Dickerson contributed reporting from New York.

/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become 'Essential' During Pandemic (Published 2020)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their "critical" role in feeding the country. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In a year's time, the heroes of the so-called beautiful game will head to the tiny Gulf kingdom of Qatar in the hope of being crowned champions at the World Cup.

But a growing number of critics accuse its leaders and private construction firms of contributing to the systemic exploitation of migrant workers, some of whom have died in unexplained circumstances while building vast soccer venues in the blazing heat.

And while Qatar says it has made significant labor reforms to protect a migrant workforce of about 2 million people - an estimated 95 percent of the country's total working population - the World Cup is shining a light on migrant deaths and human rights challenges in the region.

Before dawn every day, workers typically from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines and Kenya are taken by bus from their designated accommodations to work on colossal stadiums. The trip can take hours, and temperatures regularly reach 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

A report released Friday by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency that has an office in the country's capital, Doha, said 50 migrant workers across all sectors died in work-related accidents last year, most of them in falls or road traffic accidents, It didn't provide data for other years. In addition, there were 38,000 work-related injuries last year, 500 of them classed as severe.The report didn't specify how many were related to the World Cup.

The report said some work-related deaths may not have been properly recorded - a lack of information and potential errors by front-line medical staff members mean some work-related deaths may not have been recorded as such, it said. The International Labor Organizationcalled for a review of how the deaths of healthy young men from "natural causes" are investigated.

The human rights group Amnesty International has alleged that Qatari authorities had failed to investigate thousands of migrant deaths over the past decade, some even before World Cup projects began, while suggesting that some of the deaths were linked to unsafe working conditions.

"These men are seemingly healthy, they have passed their tests to work in Qatar, and yet they die at a young age and their death certificate just states either natural causes, cardiac arrest or respiratory failure," said May Romanos, a researcher on workers' rights in the Gulf region for Amnesty International.

"The issue is also concerning the climate in Qatar and knowing the heat and the weather conditions, with migrant workers on building sites and working as security guards," Romanos said.

Qatar disputes the findings and argues that the mortality and safety statistics for migrant workers are in line with international standards.

The soccer world is taking notice of the campaign for better conditions. Denmark's national team said in a statement Wednesday that it wouldn't take part in promotional activities at the World Cup "to mark the continuing struggle for the improvement of human rights in Qatar." Instead of the normal logos of commercial sponsors, the Danish players' shirts will display what the statement said are "critical messages."

In March, Norway and Germany both took to the field before matches wearing shirts emblazoned with human rights slogans.

The number of migrant workers who have died while working in Qatar is disputed - human rights campaigners acknowledge that there is no single reliable figure. Official Qatari statistics show that 15,021 non-Qataris died from 2010 to 2019 across the country, counting all causes of death.

The Qatari Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of the 2022 World Cup, which the government created in 2011, says there have been just 38 deaths since 2015 among migrants working on official tournament projects, 35 of which were classed as "non-work-related."

Soccer's international governing body, FIFA, said in a statement that the World Cup has contributed significantly to labor conditions across Qatar through the Supreme Committee's Workers' Welfare Program.

"The robustness of this program has been recognised repeatedly by experts and trade unions over the years, and as stated in a recent U.N. report, constitutes 'impressive changes' and 'sweeping reforms' within the country," said Alois Hug, a FIFA spokesperson.

International Labor Organization statistics show a much higher rate of occupational deaths for other countries: Armenia recorded 13.6 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2016; Egypt had 10.6 per 100,000 in 2018. Qatar's figure from 2016 is 1.7.

"Our commitment to workers' welfare has resulted in significant improvements in accommodation standards, health and safety regulations, grievance mechanisms, health care provision, and reimbursements of illegal recruitment fees to workers," the Supreme Committee said in an emailed statement.

The Government Communications Office of Qatar said in response to questions that "no other country has come so far on labor reform in such a short amount of time."

"The government is committed to engaging collaboratively and constructively with international partners and critics to further improve standards for all migrant workers in Qatar," it said in a statement.

The recent reforms include banning working outside during the hottest part of the day; a new monthly minimum wage of 1,000 riyals (around $275), plus payments for food and accommodation if they aren't included in contracts; and annual health checks.

It also scrapped the system of "kafala," in which workers gave up their passports and couldn't leave the country or change jobs without permission from their employers, a practice still common across parts of the Middle East, which trade union groups have described as a form of modern slavery.

For families who have lost loved ones, the reforms came too late, campaigners say.

"This 2022 World Cup, I often call it the blood diamond of World Cups," said Barun Ghimire, a human rights lawyer in Nepal, the home country of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar. "It's a bloodstained cup. Everyone knows migrant workers are dying. And they [the workers] did not know about this risk."

Ghimire described representing the families of men who have died while working in Qatar as "emotionally devastating."

In some cases, Ghimire said, families have had to wait days before they are informed of a death and then aren't told the cause.

"This is someone who's taken a loan, goes abroad with the hope of making their future and making some money, and as a result of work conditions or other factors they die, and at least I think the family deserves to know how they died," he said.

Ghimire is lobbying the Nepali government to stop what he says is a cycle of abuse that can often start in workers' home countries, where agencies lend money to poor, vulnerable people, often at extreme interest rates, to cover airfare and migration fees.

The Nepali government temporarily shut down three recruitment agencies in December for breaking the rules about interviews for jobs offered in Qatar.

"Someone who is going abroad, they don't understand financial systems, they don't go to banks. They take a loan from the informal sector," Ghimire said. "Those who do not die can often end up in a debt trap and have to pay a huge sum of interest to those who provided the loan.

"When this happens we'll all enjoy it and support our team, but on the backside of it, these stadiums and facilities are constructed on the dead bodies of migrant workers from one of the poorest regions in the world," Ghimire said.

Speaking by phone early one evening last month, a construction worker, 44, said he didn't want to stay up too late because his shift started the next day at 6 a.m. The worker asked not to be named for fear of retribution from his employers for speaking to the media.

For some workers, the trip to their worksite is two hours, he said, and that's without the added complication of sandstorms, which, even in the middle of Doha, Qatar's capital, can halt work entirely.

He was positive about the changes Qatar has made in workers' rights, which means there is no working outside from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the summer, but he said it wasn't always so. Have migrant workers died because of heat exhaustion?

"Yeah, before, but now it's very strict on working outside. The climate is very difficult," he said.

Qatar 2022, which will be played in the winter because of the region's extreme heat, will be the first in an Arab country. The record high temperature for Doha is 122.7 degrees F, set in 2010. Even in November, temperatures can reach 86 degrees F.

The worker has been in Qatar since 2014 and earns the minimum wage, sending 60 percent of the money home to his family in the Philippines, like the vast majority of migrant workers here who send money to their home countries.

He is working on Al Thumama stadium in Doha, which, according to the Qatar 2022 Organizing Committee, is "12km (7.5 miles) south of Doha's glittering skyline and seafront promenade." Its design is based on the ghafiya, a traditional cap worn by men and boys across the Middle East seen as a "symbol of dignity and independence."

The 40,000 fans who will pack the stadium when the World Cup kicks off next November may not realize that many of the workers who built it couldn't legally change jobs or return to their home countries until recent labor reforms took effect.

The construction worker was adamant, however, that he will stay for two or three more years: "I think more and more migrants in Qatar are staying here because [work] can't support me in the Philippines. I'm trying my best to change my life."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Qatar's migrant workers have faced exploitation and servitude. Now they're fighting for change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a year's time, the heroes of the so-called beautiful game will head to the tiny Gulf kingdom of Qatar in the hope of being crowned champions at the World Cup.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Improving migrant workers’ lives in Qatar | Letter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Letter: Fahad Al-Mana responds to a report on allegations of exploitation and abuse by migrant workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Working and housing conditions of the 1.5 million migrant workers constructing buildings in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup have been heavily criticised.
The Gulf state has made little progress on improving migrant workers' rights, despite promises to do so, according to the rights group Amnesty International.

Qatar disputes the claims and says improvements have been made.

Here, we speak to three construction workers who have worked on sites in Qatar recently. They describe the conditions there as "pathetic" and "oppressive".

'Frank' (not his real name), 30, from Kenya

"I came to Qatar from Kenya last June to work on the construction sites here.

I got the work through an agency. I was paid $350 (£223) a month when I got here, which was a lot less than I was promised. I also spent a lot to get here - over $1,000.

I worked at sites building government schools near [the capital] Doha from June to November last year. There are a lot of infrastructure projects going on here, alongside the World Cup venues.

The main site that I worked on was not a good environment. The majority of the workers are uneducated, and the companies take advantage of them, so they cannot negotiate.

They just become helpers and are badly paid. Many just end up accepting it, as they cannot go back to their home countries, because they are supporting their families.

I am sending money back to my family. They are all looking to me, but I can't tell them what it is like here, or they would tell me to come home.

When I arrived, I was told that I would be working as an electrician, even though I am not trained, which is dangerous. I got an electric shock on the site once, but thankfully I was OK.

Conditions on the sites are very bad. You work all day out in the open in extreme heat. You start at 04:00 and work all day. There is no cold drinking water on the site, just hot water. It is very oppressive.

No-one will listen if you complain. We once went on strike because we weren't paid for a month. We were eventually paid, but the management didn't care about our complaints.

Life in Qatar is very expensive. The accommodation is provided through the company, but food and general living expenses make it hard to save anything. I try to send home what I can.

As for the accommodation, I would describe the conditions as pathetic. In the first place I stayed, Al Khor, there were 10 people to one small room, with five bunk beds and nowhere to put anything. The toilets were outside. It was all very inadequate and uncomfortable.

You also have to hand over your passport on arrival, so you can't leave. You feel trapped, like a prisoner.

I am now staying in a place called Industrial - where most of the migrant workers live. The hygiene here is very poor.

There are five to a room, which is a bit better, but it is not hygienic. I now work in a mall in sales after being allowed to leave my job at the construction sites. It is a bit better, but still not great.

Life is very hard here. I would like to see the lives of migrant workers here change. It's just a sacrifice now. There need to be improvements made to safety, salaries and accommodation."

'John' (not his real name), from Ghana

"I am a truck driver working on the site of a new port project near Doha. I came here from Ghana a year and a half ago.

Honestly speaking, we are suffering badly at the hands of our employers, especially in the summer time, as it is now.

Everyone is too scared to report any problems.
"John", Migrant worker in Qatar

It is 40-50C here during the day, but there is no air conditioning in our vehicles, and we are breathing sandy air. At times the dust and sand flows in the air like snow.

There is nobody to fight for us. For almost two months now, my company has refused to pay our salaries. Our company is killing us because they don't want to give us the little reward we deserve.

My salary of $550 a month is very low for a driver like me. We have no days off to rest. This not only applies to me - it is the same with every worker at my company.

I start at 05:00 and work until 19:00, with two hours of transportation to the site and back each day.

Qatar has a labour office, but if you report your company, they will definitely send you back to your country. So everyone is too scared to report any problems.

I'm an orphan from a poor home. I couldn't finish my secondary school education.

I have been living in cabins in camps, separated by plywood. Almost all of the workers staying in these camps, are poor and come from countries in Africa and Asia, like Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We all experience the same problems.

About 15-20% of the workers here have achieved some quality of living standard, with a good salary, due to their educational background, or they have been able to get work through good foreign companies.

But for the rest of us, the payment of salaries is a real headache.

How I wish I could save enough money to leave here to get to Europe or the US.

That's my ambition, because in Ghana, even graduates don't have work, so imagine how hard it is for people like me who had to drop out of school."

Stephen Ellis, from Widnes, UK, worked on a World Cup site in Doha in March

"I worked on one of the World Cup sites in Doha at the end of March. I left after two weeks, because the conditions were an absolute disgrace.

I work as a pipe fitter and supervisor and have been on construction sites all over the world. These were the worst conditions I've ever seen on any site.

Most of the workers at the site where I worked were Indian. They are treated very badly, and the conditions in which they live and work are terrible.

There is no drinking water available, there is no air conditioning in their cabins - and this was in 45C heat. They have filthy sanitation, and the food is dished out like in the Oliver Twist movie.

However, what's even worse is the on-site safety, or lack of it. It does not exist, and my friends and I, who went to work there together, were horrified at the risks taken every day on the site.

We were told that before we started there, one Indian worker had been killed.

The site was run totally by Indians, and they were treating their own people very, very badly.

But the upper management did not seem to care. They were just turning a blind all to it all. We were told by English managers that if we didn't like it to leave, so we did.

There were also other Brits, along with myself, who were treated just as badly.

We were paid a lot more than the Indian workers - they were on about $50 a week, and we were on closer to $33 an hour - but we were still ripped off because we left early."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Working and housing conditions of the 1.5 million migrant workers constructing buildings in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup have been heavily criticised. The Gulf state has made little progress on improving migrant workers' rights, despite promises to do so, according to the rights group Amnesty International.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's a great honor and recognition for the voices of hundreds of millions of children who have been neglected or ignored, said Satyarthi in an exclusive DW interview. He has always wanted to work for children who are deprived of their childhood, the 60-year-old activist added.

Born in India in 1954, the electrical engineer founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), or the Save the Childhood Movement, a non-profit organization aiming to eliminate child trafficking and labor, in 1980.

The BBA has raided thousands of sweatshops or private homes to rescue the children forced to work there. According to the organization's own estimates, they rescued more than 80,000 children in the past 30 years.

Satyarthi also frequently takes part in street demonstrations to raise awareness on the issue and was a leader of the 1998 Global March Against Child Labour, which crossed 103 countries.

'Fight against organized crime'

Referring to the activist, the Nobel Committee said: "Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi's tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain." In addition to this, Satyarthi has contributed to the development of several international conventions aimed at protecting child rights.

According to German NGO Aktiv gegen Kinderarbeit, 12 percent of Indian children aged between 5 and 14 years are forced to work due to poverty. They are employed in agriculture, as domestic servants and in several industrial sectors.

There are, however, not just social causes such as a growing gap between rich and poor in India that Satyarthi has had to confront in his fight against exploitation of children.

It has also been a struggle against the mafia and organized criminals, he told DW. Child labor is a social evil so we have to fight in order to change the mindset of the people, Satyarthi underlined, noting that the practice is unlawful and a crime against humanity. It is therefore necessary to ensure that laws are in place and properly implemented, he stressed.

It is estimated that 12 percent of Indian children aged between 5 and 14 years are forced to work due to poverty

When asked about how the Nobel Peace Prize will change his work, the laureate replied that the only thing that may happen is that "I get to travel more often than before."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kailash Satyarthi - A crusader against child labor | DW | 10.12.2014

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's a great honor and recognition for the voices of hundreds of millions of children who have been neglected or ignored, said Satyarthi in an exclusive DW interview. He has always wanted to work for children who are deprived of their childhood, the 60-year-old activist added.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

1. Child Labor in the United States

2. Industrial Revolution

3. Immigration and Child Labor

4. National Child Labor Committee

5. Depression-Era Child Labor

6. Automatization and Education

7. Does Child Labor Exist Today?

Child labor, or the use of children as workers, servants and apprentices, has been practiced throughout most of human history, but reached its zenith during the Industrial Revolution. Miserable working conditions including crowded and unclean factories, a lack of safety codes and long hours were the norm. Children could be paid less and were less likely to organize into unions. Working children were typically unable to attend school, creating a cycle of poverty that was difficult to break. Nineteenth century reformers and labor organizers sought to restrict child labor and improve working conditions to uplift the masses, but it took the Great Depression-a time when Americans were desperate for employment-to shake long-held practices of child labor in the United States.

Child Labor in the United States

The Puritan work ethic of the 13 colonies and their founders valued hard work over idleness, and this ethos applied to children as well. Through the first half of the 1800s, child labor was an essential part of the agricultural and handicraft economy of the United States. Children worked on family farms and as indentured servants for others. To learn a trade, boys often began their apprenticeships between the ages of ten and fourteen.

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of factories and mines in need of workers. Children were ideal employees because they could be paid less, were often of smaller size so could attend to tasks in tight spaces and were less likely to organize and strike against their pitiable working conditions.

Before the Civil War, women and children played a critical role in American manufacturing, though it was still a relatively small part of the economy. Advances in manufacturing techniques after the war increased the number of jobs-and therefore increased the number of child laborers.

Did you know? In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.

Immigration and Child Labor

Immigration to the United States coincidentally peaked during the Industrial Revolution and led to a new source of labor-and child labor. When the Irish Potato Famine struck in the 1840s, Irish immigrants moved to fill lower-level factory jobs.

In the 1880s, groups from southern and eastern Europe arrived, provided a new pool of child workers. The trend continues today, as many immigrant children work in agriculture, which is exempt from certain labor laws.

National Child Labor Committee

Educational reformers of the mid-nineteenth century attempted to convince the public that a primary school education was a necessity if the nation were to advance as a whole. Several states established a minimum wage for labor and requirements for school attendance-though many of these laws were full of loopholes that were readily exploited by employers hungry for cheap labor.

Beginning in 1900, efforts to regulate or eliminate child labor became central to social reform in the United States. The National Child Labor Committee, organized in 1904, and state child labor committees led the charge.

These organizations employed flexible methods in the face of slow progress. They pioneered tactics like investigations by experts; the use of photographs of child laborers to spark outrage at the poor conditions of children at work, and persuasive lobbying efforts. They used written pamphlets, leaflets and mass mailings to reach the public.

From 1902 to 1915, child labor committees emphasized reform through state legislatures. Many laws restricting child labor were passed as part of the Progressive Era reform movement. But many Southern states resisted, leading to the decision to work for a federal child labor law. While Congress passed such laws in 1916 and 1918, the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional.

The supporters of child labor laws sought a constitutional amendment authorizing federal child labor legislation and it passed in 1924, though states were not keen to ratify it; the conservative political climate of the 1920s, together with opposition from farm and church organizations fearing increased federal power over children, acted as roadblocks.

Depression-Era Child Labor

The Great Depression left thousands of Americans without jobs and led to sweeping reforms under the New Deal programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. These focused on increasing federal oversight of the workplace and giving out-of-work adults jobs-thereby creating a powerful motive to remove children from the workforce.

Almost all of the codes developed under the National Industrial Recovery Act served to reduce child labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a national minimum wage for the first time, a maximum number of hour for workers in interstate commerce-and placed limitations on child labor. In effect, the employment of children under sixteen years of age was prohibited in manufacturing and mining.

Automatization and Education

Changing attitudes toward work and social reform weren't the only factors reducing child labor; the invention of improved machinery that mechanized many of the repetitive tasks previously given to children led to a decrease of children in the workforce. Semiskilled adults took their place for more complex tasks.

Education underwent reforms, too. Many states increasing the number of years of schooling required to hold certain jobs, lengthened the school year and began to more strictly enforce truancy laws. In 1949, Congress amended the child labor law to include businesses not covered in 1938 like transportation, communications and public utilities.

Does Child Labor Exist Today?

Although child labor has been significantly stalled in the United States, it lingers in certain areas of the economy like agriculture, where migrant workers are more difficult to regulate. Since 1938, federal laws have excluded child farm workers from labor protections provided to other working children. For example, children 12 and younger can legally work in farm fields, despite the risks posed by exposure to pesticides and farm machinery.

Employers in the garment industry have turned to the children of illegal immigrants in an effort to compete with imports from low-wage nations. Despite laws limiting the number of hours of work for children and teens still attending school, the increasing cost of education means many are working longer hours to make ends meet. State-by-state enforcement of child labor laws varies to this day.

Sources

Child Labor in U.S. History. The University of Iowa.
History of Child Labor in the United States. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Children in the Fields. National Farm Worker Ministry.

HISTORY Vault

Stream thousands of hours of acclaimed series, probing documentaries and captivating specials commercial-free in HISTORY Vault

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Child Labor: Laws & Definition - HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Child labor, the use of children and teens in often-unsafe working conditions, peaked during the Industrial Revolution but is now regulated by child labor laws.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Craig Kielburger: How young people can help to end child labor | CNN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When he was just 12, Craig Kielburger began working to end child labor. Now, he wants youth around the world to join the fight.