The agricultural industry of North Carolina is of vital importance in our state’s economy. Statistics published in 2000 indicate that agriculture, as an industry, accounts for approximately 30 percent of the state’s revenues and employs approximately 29 percent of the state’s workforce (North Carolina Agricultural Statistics, 2000).

The make-up of agriculture has altered significantly in North Carolina during the 1990s. A wider mix of crops and cultivation practices now exist as tobacco production declines. Population growth and the composition of the labor force have also changed. From 1990 to 1999, the N.C. Office of Planning shows that our state’s population increased by more than 15 percent annually. In some areas where agriculture plays a role, the non-farming population exceeded 15 percent.

While rural and urban residents struggle over the philosophical challenges of urban expansion, Tar Heel farmers and Hispanic workers have formed a working relationship that mutually benefits each other. This beneficial relationship is realized when 98 percent of the migrant H-2A workers (10,000 in North Carolina) expressed a desire to return the following year (Luis Torres, Institute for Inter-American Studies). A recent survey of the Christmas tree industry shows that 35 percent seasonal, part-time, and full-time workers return to the same farms each year. Many growers have consistently said that the “industry would dry up if it weren’t for the Mexicans!”

As you may have noticed, an increasing number of Hispanic workers have entered North Carolina to take advantage of employment opportunities in the state’s economy. The majority of these workers have flocked to urban areas such as Charlotte, the Triad, and the Raleigh/Durham area, finding work in the service and construction sectors. Here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Hispanic workers, mainly from Mexico, are the most common labor force working in seasonal agricultural and forestry-related jobs.

Many reports in the popular media focus attention to substandard wages paid to migrant agricultural workers. However, Dr. John Sabella, the associate director of the N.C. Agromedicine Institute, has this to say: “Wages earned in North Carolina for one day translates to a few weeks work in Mexico.” Mexican demographic data cites that the average income per capita often lies below $1,000. In one survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, the average income per migrant laborer is $7,500 a year.

This income is realized in one of several scenarios. For H-2A workers, earnings can be obtained in six months ($7.75 per house). For non H-2A workers, it may take eight months ($6 per hour) to four months ($12 per hour) to reach this survey’s average income. In a survey conducted with WNC Christmas trees growers and workers, Jim Hamilton found that hourly wages ranged between $6 and $12 per hour.

In interviews with Jackson County growers employing Hispanic labor, hourly earnings ranged between $6 to $9.60 per hour, and $9 to $14 per hour if paid by piecemeal (worker preference). It is also estimated that workers send up to 50 percent of their wages back to families in Mexico, which may attribute to the substandard living conditions of some migrant laborers.

A little history

Fifty years ago, absorption of U.S. labor by the WWII effort led to the creation of the “Bracero” Program, which allowed Mexican citizens to contract for employment on U.S. farms as nonimmigrant guest workers. Unfortunately, an effective regulatory system did not exist and farmworkers were commonly oppressed. “Harvest of Shame,” a television documentary, chronicled the extent of farmworker exploitation in Florida. This led Congress to end the Bracero Program in 1964. After a re-evaluation and restructuring of immigration and guestworker policy, a forerunner of the H-2A program was introduced.

Today, guest workers enter the U.S. through the “H-2A program.” H-2A refers to the section of immigration law referring to contract farm labor. The H-2A program enables agricultural employers to legally hire nonimmigrant alien workers for seasonal jobs if domestic labor is in short supply or unavailable. North Carolina is the largest participant in the H-2A program with more than 10,000 guest workers and ranks fifth in number of migrant and seasonal farm workers (around 350,000). The number and status of many migrant workers in agriculture may soon change as a result of pending legislation.



Shift to Hispanic labor

You may be wondering why North Carolina experienced a shift to Hispanic labor. A 2002 survey of Western North Carolina’s Christmas tree industry indicates that the first Hispanic labor appeared on larger farm operations in the early 1980s. In Jackson County, the first migrant labor was hired in 1984. By the early to mid-1990s, many of the large farming operations employed Hispanic labor. Some factors contributing to this shift included:

° More labor was needed than immediate family or friends could supply.

° Increasing scarcity of local labor led growers to find workers elsewhere.

° Growth in average farm size.

° More active recruitment of Hispanic workers.

° Growers were impressed by the Hispanic’s efficiency, work ethic and reliability.

° Hispanic family networking led to a further influx of workers.

During this shift, the larger growers went with the H-2A program while the smaller growers relied on “free-lancers.” Today, farmers obtain their workforce via Hispanic family networks, drive-ups, H-2A, ESC, borrowing from other growers and contractors.

Worker, employer thoughts

° “With the H-2A program, you get a free place to live, a set wage, no taxes, transportation, and a lot of work.”

— Avery County guestworker from Michoacan, Mexico


° “I am grateful for the work, as I’m able to send money back home to my family.”

— Jaime Mendez and Manual Ibarra, Mexican friends of mine


° “My employer is a good boss, we work hard but we are treated well.”

— Jackson County worker from Mexico


° “Work availability is the number one factor in picking a job and staying there. If there’s not enough work, we’ll look for another job. That’s the only advantage of being ‘illegal.’ In Christmas trees, there’s a lot of work. Especially with shearing and the harvest.”

— Watauga County worker from San Luis Potosi, Mexico


° “As an employer, I feel like I’m providing jobs and income for folks living here in the County and do right by my workers.”

— Jackson County vegetable grower


° “Hiring Mexicans is not less expensive. You have to provide transportation, free housing, pay $500 dollars per worker to the Grower’s Association, and pay the workers the adverse wage rate ($7.75/hr).”

— Ashe County Christmas tree grower (25,000 trees/year)


° “Agriculture is the only occupation required to provide housing. In 1989, farmers, worker advocates, legal services, federal, state and local government worked together to develop a state migrant housing act that met OHSA standards.”

— Paula Gupton, N.C. Farm Bureau-farm labor specialist and lobbyist.

Where are we today?

Relationships between employers and laborers are more multi-faceted than one-dimensional exposés. Research, popular media and advocacy groups focus mainly on exploitation. Collaboration along with education will accomplish more than pointing fingers. It is obvious that more empirical research is needed on the underlying social, political and economic causes, costs and benefits of an increased Hispanic presence in the U.S workforce. At the same time, there are some wonderful services that are currently being implemented.

For more information about this issue, contact Christy Bredenkamp at 828.586.4009. Bredenkamp is the NCSU horticultural agent in Jackson and Swain counties. Jim Hamilton is the NCSU horticultural agent in Watauga County.