Organic farms' seasonal farm labour-sourcing strategies in the pre-‘Arizona’ mode of immigration control

ABSTRACT

This study analysed the strategies of the more labour-intensive organic farms in sourcing seasonal farmworkers for their operations. The study period (2002) captures the farm labour market conditions prior to enforcement of stricter ‘Arizona’ style of immigration controls. Farmers at that time usually would tend to exhaust the full potentials of family labour contributions before relying on off-farm labour sources. When off-farm workers were considered, the results establish the farms' dependence on foreign labourers for seasonal farm work, although farmers seemed to have already been more cautiously hiring these workers in areas with lower concentrations of undocumented workers. This study also confirmed that farmers generally used high wage offers (possibly directed to domestic workers with more employment options) to lure them into working in their farms. The results also emphasize the need for improvements in the H2A guest farmworker visa programme that did not offer significant remedy for seasonal farm labour hiring at that time.

KEYWORDS:

• Arizona immigration law
• Heckman selection method
• organic farms
• seasonal farmworkers
• undocumented foreign workers

JEL Classification:

• J43
• J15
• K37