Source: UNIV OF WISCONSIN submitted to
IMMIGRANT FARM LABOR IN WISCONSIN DAIRY INDUSTRY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0212186
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
WIS01272
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2007
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2009
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Pritikin, J.
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF WISCONSIN
21 N PARK ST STE 6401
MADISON,WI 53715-1218
Performing Department
Community and Environmental Sociology
Non Technical Summary
Recent findings suggest that immigrant dairy workers often experience problematic racial and xenophobic discrimination and rejection within the local communities in which they have settled, yet no research has yet directly investigated immigrant farmworkers' own experiences of community reception in Wisconsin. Specifically, this research will contribute empirical data about the changes in Wisconsin and US farm labor force; help community-based organizations, the UW Extension Service, and non-profit organizations better understand the changing issues that immigrants, rural communities, and farmers experience; inform theoretical debates about immigrant assimilation/integration in rural and urban US communities; and inform immigration policy debates.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6106010308010%
8036099308090%
Knowledge Area
610 - Domestic Policy Analysis; 803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities;

Subject Of Investigation
6010 - Individuals; 6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
Due to structural changes in Wisconsin's dairy sector, Wisconsin dairy farmers increasingly rely on hired labor to help run their operations. Moreover, research shows that immigrant workers are rapidly gaining predominance in Wisconsin's hired dairy labor force. The rapid rise in year-round immigrant farmworkers thus presents a considerable set of social challenges to the state's social services and threatens many residents' deeply rooted sense of (northern European) cultural identity. Recent findings suggest that immigrant dairy workers often experience problematic racial and xenophobic discrimination and rejection within the local communities in which they have settled, yet no research has yet directly investigated immigrant farmworkers' own experiences of community reception in Wisconsin. This research project will thus contribute to understandings of key labor changes that directly affect the viability of Wisconsin farms and communities, as well as communities across the US facing similar cultural changes due to increasing reliance on immigrant laborers in all agricultural field work, meatpacking and canneries, manufacturing, and construction. Specifically, this research will contribute empirical data about the changes in Wisconsin and US farm labor force; help community-based organizations, the UW Extension Service, and non-profit organizations better understand the changing issues that immigrants, rural communities, and farmers experience; inform theoretical debates about immigrant assimilation/integration in rural and urban US communities; and inform immigration policy debates.
Project Methods
For this project, I will conduct a series of approximately 20 one-hour, semi-structured, confidential interviews with key informants: county extension agents, farm labor advocates, immigrant advocates, education system representatives, elected officials, law enforcement representatives, and health clinic representatives. These interviews will help me capture these actors' birds-eye perspectives of the farm labor force, the social and economic impacts of its changing demographics, and the experiences of immigrant workers; collect their interpretations of immigrant workers' experiences living in rural communities in Wisconsin; and acquire their assistance with the task of gaining access to immigrant farmworkers and earning immigrants' confidence. I will also conduct at least 20 in-depth, semi-structured, one-hour, confidential interviews with immigrant farmworkers (and their family members, when available) with the assistance of the bilingual RA to serve as interpreter. The interviews will help me characterize they ways immigrant workers and their family members perceive their social relationships with the rural communities in which they settle, identify social networks immigrants use to integrate, and identify the primary barriers immigrants face to integration and upward mobility. The RA and I will also engage in ethnographic methods that will range from observing behavior at public festivals and rallies to participating in conversations at immigrants' regular meeting groups (such as immigrant support groups, women's groups, or hometown associations).

Progress 09/01/07 to 08/31/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: My research assistants and I used the project data and subsequent analysis as the basis of a series of reports (see publications list) written for a broad audience, multiple presentations at meetings and conferences around the United States, and classroom lecture material for undergraduate and graduate students at UW-Madison. Additionally, I use this project's findings to inform the work of the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Migrant Labor and the Wisconsin Migrant Coalition, both of which I am now a member. Additionally, I anticipate that the project findings will inform the upcoming UW-Extension Latino Issues Education meeting in March 2010. Also, the research findings were showcased in numerous news publications across the state, including in the Wisconsin State Journal, the Capital Times, and Grow Magazine of UW-Madison's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. PARTICIPANTS: Jill Harrison was PI for this project. Julia McReynolds, Trish O'Kane, and Sarah Lloyd worked as graduate student research assistants on this project. Sam Kanson-Benavav worked as an undergraduate research assistant for the project. Alan Turnquist of the Program on Agricultural Technology studies provided considerable assistance with editing, publishing, and disseminating results. Brent Valentine worked as a researcher (collecting data for the structured survey of dairy farmers and employees). TARGET AUDIENCES: This project was designed to inform the work of immigrant and farm labor advocates, immigrant social service providers, elected officials and their staff, and other decision-makers involved in debates about immigration policy and practices through which they are enforced. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
This research project has demonstrated that Latino immigrants are a new and crucial component of the state's dairy industry. Our finding that 40% of all dairy employees are Latino immigrants signals a dramatic shift for dairy farms that have historically relied only on family labor. These findings have direct relevance to the work of outreach institutions and social service organizations. Additionally, the research showcases the ways in which U.S. immigration policy enforcement practices oppressively shape the lives of immigrant workers and their families in the United States. I use these findings to inform the debates about federal immigration policy reform.

Publications

  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, Trish O'Kane, and Alan Turnquist. 2009. Immigrant Labor Holds 40 Percent Market Share. Hoard's Dairyman. December: 749-50.
  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O'Kane. 2009. Overview of Immigrant Workers on Wisconsin Dairy Farms. Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms Briefing No. 1. UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.
  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O'Kane. 2009. A Look into the Lives of Wisconsin's Immigrant Dairy Workers. Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms Briefing No. 2. UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.
  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O'Kane. 2009. Dairy Workers in Wisconsin: Tasks, Shifts, Wages, and Benefits. Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms Briefing No. 3. UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.
  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O'Kane. 2009. Immigrant Dairy Workers in Rural Wisconsin Communities. Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms Briefing No. 4. UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.
  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O'Kane. 2009. Legal Issues Facing Immigrant Dairy Workers in Wisconsin. Changing Hands: Hired Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms Briefing No. 5. UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.


Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Throughout 2008, PI Jill Harrison and research assistant Trish O'Kane have been meeting with immigrant advocates and social service providers throughout Wisconsin; conducted 12 in-depth, qualitative interviews in Spring 2008 with immigrant dairy farm workers in Wisconsin; conducted a structured survey in Spring 2008 with 83 dairy farmers throughout Wisconsin and many of their non-family employees (103 US-born workers, and 270 immigrant workers). We also entered and analyzed the data and began integrating the survey and interview findings with our findings from our focus groups with farmers (conducted in 2007) and secondary data sources. This research will contribute empirical data about the demographic composition of the Wisconsin farm labor force, dairy employees' employment histories and ambitions, immigrant employees' migration patterns and settlement aspirations, immigrants' experiences of reception in rural Wisconsin communities, communication barriers between immigrants and natives in the agricultural workplace, and the ways in which the changing labor force demographics interact with the organization of farm work. We are currently preparing a series of reports that will disseminate the findings to a wide audience. The fact sheets are designed to be accessible and useful to policymakers, industry representatives, other researchers, extension staff, undergraduate students, immigrant advocates, and others. The reports will be published by UW's Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, who will announce their publication widely to the press and to relevant audiences. PI Harrison has also made numerous presentations on the preliminary findings to academic and industry audiences and has advised numerous members of the press in their reporting on the issues. PARTICIPANTS: PI = Jill Harrison Pritikin, Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, UW-Madison; RA = Trish O'Kane, graduate student in Environmental Studies, UW-Madison. We collaborated with the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at UW- Madison, with research associate Brent Valentine, and with Julia McReynolds and Sarah Lloyd, graduate students in Sociology at UW-Madison. TARGET AUDIENCES: Policymakers, social service providers, university extension agents, researchers, industry representatives, and others have all requested basic demographic data on the changing dairy farm labor force. This survey will therefore inform the work of all of these groups; inform theoretical debates about immigrant assimilation/integration in rural and urban US communities and about farm structural change; and inform immigration policy debates. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
These findings are the first-ever systematic characterization of the dairy farm hired labor force; how its demographic composition has changed over time; how those demographic characteristics relate to wages, benefits, hours, shifts, tasks, and other aspects of the organization of farm work; and the social justice implications of those findings. Also, the research prompted the Wisconsin Migrant Coalition, a statewide immigrant farm worker advocacy group, to invite me to join their advisory board, and I started that position in 2008. Also, several members of the Governor's Council on Migrant Labor plan to use my findings in January 2009 to lobby the Council to include dairy employees in their advocacy work and legal protections (excluded until now because they are year-round, not seasonal, employees).

Publications

  • Harrison, Jill. 2008. "Lessons learned from pesticide drift: A call to bring production agriculture, farm labor, and social justice back into agrifood research and activism." Agriculture and Human Values 25(2): 163-167.
  • Harrison, Jill, Julia McReynolds, Trish O'Kane, and Brent Valentine. 2008. "Hired Labor in Wisconsin Agriculture: Trends and Implications." Status of Wisconsin Agriculture. Madison: University of Wisconsin.


Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Since this project began in September 2007, PI Jill Harrison and research assistant Trish O'Kane have been meeting with immigrant advocates and social service providers throughout Wisconsin. We have also secured human subjects approval for (a) a series of in-depth, qualitative interviews we will begin in Spring 2008 with immigrant dairy farm workers in Wisconsin, and (b) a structured survey that will be administered in Spring 2008 to 400-500 dairy farm employees and their employers across the state of Wisconsin. This research will contribute empirical data about the demographic composition of the Wisconsin farm labor force, dairy employees' employment histories and ambitions, immigrant employees' migration patterns and settlement aspirations, immigrants' experiences of reception in rural Wisconsin communities, communication barriers between immigrants and natives in the agricultural workplace, and the ways in which the changing labor force demographics influence the organization of farm work. PARTICIPANTS: PI = Jill Harrison, Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, UW-Madison; RA = Trish O'Kane, graduate student in Environmental Studies, UW-Madison. We collaborated with the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at UW-Madison, with research associate Brent Valentine, and with Julia McReynolds, graduate student in Sociology at UW-Madison. TARGET AUDIENCES: Policymakers, social service providers, university extension agents, and others have all requested basic demographic data on the changing dairy farm labor force. This survey will therefore inform the work of social service organizations, including UW-Extension and immigrant advocacy groups; inform theoretical debates about immigrant assimilation/integration in rural and urban US communities; and inform immigration policy debates. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: n/a

Impacts
Our preliminary research helped us to secure funding for the quantitative survey project (to be funded by the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies and administered in part by Brent Valentine).

Publications

  • Harrison, Jill, Julia McReynolds, Trish O'Kane, and Brent Valentine. 2008 forthcoming. "Hired Labor in Wisconsin Agriculture: Trends and Implications." Status of Wisconsin Agriculture. Madison: University of Wisconsin.
  • Harrison, Jill. 2007. "Immigrant Labor on Wisconsin Dairy Farms." Program on Agricultural Technology Studies Fact Sheet 24. October.
  • Harrison, Jill. 2008 forthcoming. "Lessons learned from pesticide drift: A call to bring production agriculture, farm labor, and social justice back into agrifood research and activism." Agriculture and Human Values 25(2).