VLS Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic Goals Teaching goals: Litigation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

I m m i g r a t i o n R e f o r m C o n f e re n c e F r i d a y, M a y 2 8 , 2 0 1 0 B e t h Ly o n

Agricultural

Exceptionalism

U.S.

VLS Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic Goals

 Teaching goals:

 Litigation and legal case management  Client-centered lawyering  Role of race and ethnicity in subordination  Bi-/multi-lingual lawyering (interpreter internship program)  Role of lawyers in social change and access to justice  Unique workforce challenges in agricultural industry

 Service Goals:

 Individual representation for members of underserved

community

 Know-your-rights outreach to underserved community

Waged Agricultural Work: World Overview

 40% the world’s workers are in agriculture  30% of agricultural workers are waged employees  Over 70 per cent of child labor is in agriculture.

Some 132 million children under 15 years of age work on farms and plantations worldwide

 Agriculture is the third most dangerous industry

United States Overview

 2.5 million agricultural workers in the United States  99% are racial minorities  50-75% are undocumented immigrants  21% are women

Slavery and Debt Peonage as Agricultural Worker Policies

 “Land abundance dictated slavery”: export model  The “vast majority” of slaves brought to the United States

worked on plantations: cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice

 Key role of Chinese migrants in California agriculture  New Deal Era: 85% of agricultural and domestic workers

were African American

 Agrarian ethos

Farmworker Protections (approx. %) as Compared with Other Industries

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Current Farmworker Protections (approx. %) with Unauthorized Worker Exclusions

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Lack of Enforcement, Lack of Support for Families

Immigration Policy as Agricultural Workforce Policy

 Bracero program  “H2-A” Program

 51,000 in 2007  Employer-tied  Excluded from basic farmworker protections

International Ag. Labor Exceptionalism

 ILO Agricultural Worker Health and Safety Convention  Did not participate in latest ILO consultation and fora on

Decent Work in Agriculture

 Did not participate in IACHR litigation on

undocumented worker rights

 Has not signed or ratified the UN Migrant Worker

Convention

 Has not acceded to ILO Migrant Worker Conventions  Has not implemented NAALC rulings for farmworkers in

domestic courts

Fundamental ILO Conventions Compared with ILO Migrant Worker & Ag. Conventions

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Fundamental, Agricultural & Migrant Worker ILO Conventions: Two U.S. Ratifications

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Recent and Ongoing Change Efforts

 Immigration Amnesty and “AgJobs” Bill  Increased enforcement  Hazardous child work regulations  Increased funding and innovation to combat trafficking  NAALC litigation on right to counsel  Binational networks: Portability of Justice and Labor

Citizenship

Proposal: Comparative Indices

 Agricultural Labor Exploitation Index  Foreign Labor Exploitation Index

 Problematize northern failure to manage labor migration  Problematize agricultural worker rights exclusions and lax

enforcement

 Challenge Northern-biased index culture