Doña-Reveco, Cristián

González, Daniela

English

The University of Nebraska, Omaha

University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Latino/Latin American Studies Other Publications OLLAS Reports & Publications 1-2019 Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press: Blog post Cristián Doña-Reveco Daniela González Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/latinamstudies_ollas_publications 12/8/22, 2:25 PM Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press | Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) | University of Nebraska Omahahttps://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/ollas/research/agricultural-workers-in-nebraska-press.php 1/7O ce of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS)Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska PressUNO / O ce of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) / Research / Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska PressAgricultural Workers in the Nebraska PressJanuary 2019Dr. Cristián Doña-RevecoOLLAS Director & Associate Professor of SociologyDaniela GonzálezOLLAS Graduate Research AssistantAs part of our analysis on the access to legal aid by agricultural workers in the state of Nebraska,we wanted to observe how these workers were perceived or represented in the local newspapers.Representations in the press are important because, as Moscovici argues, they make the strangebecome familiar and the invisible, perceptible. Using the keywords “agricultural workers” and“migrant workers”, we collected and analyzed 39 articles that appeared in nine of Nebraska’snewspapers between January of 2016 and August of 2018.Of these 39 articles, 26 referred to “agricultural workers” and 16 “migrant workers”. Two-thirds ofthe articles presented both categories in a positive light. There are, however, some differences.Only about one  fth of the articles related to agricultural workers had a neutral or negative slant,while almost half the migrant workers’ articles where neutral or negative. The main themes presentin the news articles are about Social and Health Issues experienced by workers (thirteen articles).Product description (seven articles), Agricultural Labor and Economy (six articles), and Business12/8/22, 2:25 PM Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press | Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) | University of Nebraska Omahahttps://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/ollas/research/agricultural-workers-in-nebraska-press.php 2/7and Economic Issues (six articles) are the other themes in order of relevance. It is interesting thatMigration related issues are present as the main theme in only four of the articles and all of themin connection to migrant workers and not agricultural workers. The three remaining articles maintheme are policy—broadly de ned—related issues. Our analysis allowed us to place the articleswithin four frames. These frames are forms of organizing experiences, as Goffman stated. In thisanalysis, frames serve as tools to group the articles on sets de ned by the researchers based onthemes within the articles. The distribution of the articles within each frame can be observed in thefollowing table.Within the community frame, we can observe the impact of agricultural and migrant workers in thecities, towns, and villages of the state as presented in the newspapers. At the same time, thesearticles show the concerns and challenges of communities confronted to rapid social,demographic and economic change. These communities, in partnership with organizations of thecivil society, are active in advancing opportunities for agricultural and migrant workers. Amongthem, we can mention actions to prevent homelessness and human tra cking, the hiring of a newattorney to work on legal access, the celebration of Latino leaders, and the development ofworkshops for Latino farmers. These actions respond to massive demographic changes in thestate, that the newspapers exemplify using the case of Schuyler, as it reads in one of the articles:“What you've been reading on the national level, Schuyler is a microcosm of that” (Omaha WorldHerald July 8, 2018; Page 1A). In this town, the Hispanic population has changed from 4% in 1990to close to 70%. This percentage in even higher in school age children. Schuyler has also receivedrefugee-resettled populations from East Africa. Not all the articles are positive towards change andmigrant workers. Some groups criticized the possible installation of chicken processing plants inthe eastern region of the state, even if for many this represented a large economic opportunity.Although one of these plants was approved by the community, some worried it meant, “noise,pollution, tra c, and an in ux of what they said could be migrant workers” (The ColumbusTelegram, April 6, 2016).The economy frame stands on the repeated statement that the agricultural sector drives theeconomy of the state. Thus, most articles center on salaries, produce production, and the currentprocess of land concentration by large farming groups. This last theme expresses the challengesthat are brought with changes in land ownership. Challenges that are highlighted by the possible12/8/22, 2:25 PM Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press | Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) | University of Nebraska Omahahttps://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/ollas/research/agricultural-workers-in-nebraska-press.php 3/7economic effects of the trade policies of the current administration. Another economic challengepresent in these articles is the economic effects that changes toward a more restrictive migrationpolicy might bring to migrant workers. The conclusion here is that there is some economicuncertainty in the agricultural sector that can have effects in other areas of society life, as we willsee below.We observed two themes within the labor frame. The  rst theme—with  ve articles—referred tosafety issues in agricultural work. The second, to H2A workers and the impacts of migration policyin this category of agricultural workers. The articles on agricultural work safety focus on thisactivity being the most dangerous of any type of labor in the United States, while not making anyreference to migrant workers. The second theme, describes migrant workers sometimes as anovelty, making clear differences between those that come from Mexico and Central America andthose who come from Australia, South Africa, or other “Global North” countries. The  rst group isdescribed as people in need of jobs to secure their family’s wellbeing. Young people gainingexperience or earning enough to have leisure time back in their countries of origin comprise thesecond group. All the articles in this theme position migrant workers, and speci cally H2A workers,as a needed labor force as well as consistently better and more reliable workers than their localcounterparts. Due to this, those interviewed expressed concern that giving preference to highlyskilled migration would negatively affect agricultural production by possible reducing the numberof available H2A visas. .The last frame comprises news articles that deal with a larger breadth of social issues related toagricultural and migrant workers. As we mentioned above, there are not only economic impacts ofcurrent changes to agricultural related programs; there are also social impacts. Articles mention apossible reduction in the state farmer´s support of the current administration, as well as concernabout how uncertainty around some agricultural related programs, such as SNAP, and migrationpolicies may affect agricultural production. Farmers also reject the current application of theWaters of the United States program—developed in the previous administration—due to its lack ofconnection to reality. At the same time, the only editorial of this period uses the O´Neill raids of2018 to back the work of ICE while it criticizes Congress for its lack of action regarding migrationpolicy. There are positive mentions of migration as a central component of the state, particularlythrough the presentation of the possible social impacts of the current administration’s migrationlaws and the history of Mexican migration to Scottsbluff.Our analysis show that the representation of agricultural workers and migrant workers is donemostly from a macro perspective. The newspaper articles present these actors from a policyperspective, from its economic impacts, from their participation in the production process. Rarelythe articles present the workers from a personal perspective. In fact, of all the articles analyzedonly four use the names of the workers and presents them to the readers. This lack ofrepresentation at the individual level dehumanizes agricultural workers, reducing them to a meanof production, a nationality, or a visa category. There are a few cases where the opposite happens.The articles on the young South Africans or the piece on independent farming workshops for12/8/22, 2:25 PM Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press | Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) | University of Nebraska Omahahttps://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/ollas/research/agricultural-workers-in-nebraska-press.php 4/7migrant workers, are two examples were the stories of these workers are positively representedusing their own stories to place their relevance in the state into context. The importance ofagricultural and migrant workers in the state requires individual level positive representations oftheir lives and working conditions.This blog post is part of the research project “Legal Aid Access by Migrant and AgriculturalWorkers”, funded through a research grant by Legal Aid of Nebraska (May 2018 – May 2019).CONTACT US220 Arts & Sciences HallCollege Advising O ce  COLLEGE RESOURCESFor Faculty and StaffMath-Science Learning CenterContact UsOLLAS O ce ASH 1026001 Dodge StreetOmaha, NE 68182-0479Phone: 402.554.3835Fax: 402.554.3557Email: unoollas@unomaha.eduO ce HoursM-F 8:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.College of Arts and Sciences

Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press: Blog post

https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=latinamstudies_ollas_publications

Agricultural Workers in the Nebraska Press: Blog post

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

The University of Nebraska, Omaha