migrant workers news stories on Newser

Hire Local? Farmers Who Seek US Workers Hit Hard

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:04:22 CDT

John Harold is trying to do the right thing when it comes to harvesting his 1,000-acre Colorado farm, by hiring only legal foreign workers and, this summer, offering more positions to unemployed locals. But “it didn’t take me six hours to realize I’d made a heck of a mistake,...

Ex-Cons Can't Keep Up With Migrant Farm Workers

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:38:37 CDT

With farmers complaining that a crackdown on illegal immigrants has scared away their migrant workforce, authorities in Georgia are trying to see whether they can get unemployed ex-cons into the fields. The results so far are mixed at best after about a week. Mexican and Guatemalan workers will generally keep...

Colbert (Briefly) Breaks Character in Testimony

Kevin Spak — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:45:34 CDT

Stephen Colbert mostly yucked it up during his congressional testimony today, but towards the end, Democrat Judy Chu actually got him to break his faux-pundit facade. After relating the story of a worker overcome by heat stroke, but unable to find medical help, she asked Colbert why he had chosen...

Nanny: Diplomat Made Me a Slave

Matt Cantor — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:33:59 CDT

A migrant worker in Britain took what looked like a plush job as a diplomat’s nanny—only to be treated as a sex slave with little recourse to the law, the Independent reports, uncovering a predicament faced by other workers. “I was trapped. I was paid nothing, never allowed to...

Mexico Kidnappers Snatched 10K US-Bound Migrants

Rob Quinn — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:00:00 CDT

Mexican gangs preying on Central American migrants headed for the US kidnapped almost 10,000 people between September 2008 and February 2009, according to a new report from Mexico's national human rights commission. The average ransom paid was $2,500, according to the report, which said Mexican authorities participated in...

Recession Cools Worldwide Migration

Harry Kimball — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:51:50 CDT

Facing a tough job market, immigrants are returning home around the world, reversing historic migration patterns and giving up on income that once fed their families, the Wall Street Journal reports. With construction workers going back to Mexico and domestic servants to the Philippines, wealthy nations are also bound to...

Tomatoes Bring Fair-Trade Movement Stateside

Katherine Thompson — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:01:26 CDT

With tomato pickers earning 45 cents per 32-pound bucket—the same wage as 30 years ago—fair-labor coalitions have long staged protests and boycotts. Now one of the country's biggest food-services companies is taking up the cause, the Washington Post reports. Bon Appetit says that if growers don't agree to...

US Downturn Cuts Migrants' Payments Home

Matt Cantor — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:30:04 CDT

The downturn in the US economy is also hitting Mexico hard, the Washington Post reports. Money sent home from the US, known as remittances, dropped nearly 7% in January compared with the year before, the biggest plunge in 13 years, says the Mexican government. Without that money, the country's No....

54 Burmese Migrant Workers Suffocate in Border Crossing

Kate Rockwood — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:54:43 CDT

Police yesterday discovered the bodies of 54 Burmese migrant workers who suffocated in a truck heading across the border to Thailand. Workers crammed in the 7-by-20-foot space, almost all women, say when they finally managed to alert the driver, he fled. Each worker paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand,...