Today more and more agricultural workers migrate from small towns in southern Mexico and even Central America. They are making California a richer place, in wealth and culture.

But the wages these families earn are barely enough to survive. As Abe Lincoln said, “labor creates all wealth,” but farm workers get precious little of it.

Low wages have a human cost.

In housing, it means that families live in cramped trailers, or packed like sardines in apartments and garages, with many people sleeping in a single room.

I’ve seen children working in fields in northern Mexico, but this year I saw them working here too. When families bring their kids to work, it’s not because they don’t value their education or future. It’s because they can’t make ends meet with the labor of adults alone. (excerpt from Farmworkers’ Plight: No fruits for their labor, SF Chronicle, Oct. 11, 2006)

Also, see articles from New America Media In-Depth category: Immigrant Rights.