Who were the American migrant workers of the 1930s and where did they come from?

Who were the American migrant workers of the 1930s and where did they come from?

The migrants represented in Voices from the Dust Bowl came primarily from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Most were of Anglo-American descent with family and cultural roots in the poor rural South.

What was the life of a migrant worker in the US in the 1930’s?

Working conditions were often unsafe and unsanitary. Migrant workers had to follow the harvest of different crops, so they had to continue to pack up and move throughout California to find work. When the migrant workers weren’t working, they enjoyed recreational and social activities. Many sang and played instruments.

How many migrant workers were there in the 1930s?

The exact number of Dust Bowl refugees remains a matter of controversy, but by some estimates, as many as 400,000 migrants headed west to California during the 1930s, according to Christy Gavin and Garth Milam, writing in California State University, Bakersfield’s Dust Bowl Migration Archives.

Why did people migrate in the 1930s?

Migration Out of the Plains during the Depression. During the Dust Bowl years, the weather destroyed nearly all the crops farmers tried to grow on the Great Plains. Many once-proud farmers packed up their families and moved to California hoping to find work as day laborers on huge farms.

Why did migrant workers go to Salinas Valley?

The setting mainly took place in south of Soledad, California, near the Salinas Valley, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Salinas Valley had many substantial farms during the Depression. Migrant farm workers were perfect examples, to highlight the solitude and loneliness engendered by the Depression.

What do you mean by migrant workers?

Migrant workers move predominately from areas lacking jobs or desirable jobs to where labor shortage exists and where the attractive jobs are.

What was life like for migrant workers?

Migrant workers lacked educational opportunities for their children, lived in poverty and terrible housing conditions, and faced discrimination and violence when they sought fair treatment. Attempts to organize workers into unions were violently suppressed.

What were typical salaries for migrant workers in the 1930s?

As a result, wages throughout the nation fell during the Depression. Migrant workers in California who had been making 35 cents per hour in 1928 made only 14 cents per hour in 1933. Sugar beet workers in Colorado saw their wages decrease from $27 an acre in 1930 to $12.37 an acre three years later.

What jobs did migrant workers do in the 1930s?

The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl (a period of drought that destroyed millions of acres of farmland) forced white farmers to sell their farms and become migrant workers who traveled from farm to farm to pick fruit and other crops at starvation wages.

What happened to the migrant workers in the 1930s?

Why did people move to the Salinas Valley in 1930?

The Dust Bowl drew more than 300,000 refugees into California during the 1930s. Although California farming required more labor, and therefore more people, there simply were not enough jobs available for the number of people migrating into the state.