Harvet GypsiesJoin now to read essay Harvet GypsiesHarvest GypsiesA major drought, over-cultivation, and a country suffering from one of the greatest depressions in history are all it took to displace hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners and send them, and everything they had, out west. The Dust Bowl ruined crops all across the Great Plains region, crops that people depended on for survival. When no food could be grown and no money could be made, entire families, sometimes up to 8 people or more, packed up everything they had and began the journey to California, where it was rumored that jobs were in full supply. Without even closing the door behind them in some cases, these families left farms that had been with them for generations, only to end up in a foreign place where they were neither welcomed nor needed in great quantity. This would cause immense problems for their futures. It is these problems that author John Steinbeck spent a great deal of his time studying and documenting so that Americans could better understand the plight of these migrant farmers, otherwise known as “Okies.” From touring many of these “Hoovervilles” and “Little Oklahomas” (pg. v) Steinbeck was given a firsthand look at the issues and hardships these migrant workers faced on a daily basis. With the help of Tom Collins, manager of a federal migrant labor camp, Steinbeck began a “personal and literary journey” (pg. v), revealing to the world the painful truth of these “Okies” in his book Harvest Gypsies.
They arrived in beat-up, run down vehicles; after traveling thousands of miles into California, often losing children and older family members along the way (pg 22), they arrived with dreams of a brighter future, one with the hope of land for their own and jobs to support their loved ones. The scene they came upon, however, was much different than what they had envisioned. Before the “Okies,” California’s agriculture functioned by the use of imported labor from foreign countries. Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos were all brought in to work, but their low standard of living and attempts to organize caused race riots by the white labor force and subsequent removal of foreign workers from the agricultural industry. The need for cheap labor therefore remained. To fill this void, many Mexican workers were brought in—so many that the white worker could not even live in southern California anymore because the wages were so low. Eventually the Mexican worker population grew so massive that they too began to organize, causing the growers to take action against them with “vigilante terrorism and savagery unbelievable in a civilized state” (pg 54). Eventually Mexican labor was withdrawn as well.
The differences between these foreign workers and the Okies were quite numerous. First, the issue of race created large problems; most people in California were not particularly fond of immigrants from foreign lands, people who could not even speak their English. The locals were also displeased with the Okie “squatter camps” that were springing up all around, although race riots were not as big an issue in these places. Another difference was demographics. Most Asian and Mexican laborers were young single males; these men would form into groups of six or more within their respective ethnicities to pool their resources and buy supplies for their survival (Pg.55). The Okies, on the other hand, consisted of families with women and small children, sometimes with only one or two people able to work and support the whole group. Finally, many of these foreign laborers came from worse living situations in their native country than what they experienced as workers in California, whereas the midwestern migrants were coming from farmhouses and comfortable living conditions into a level of poverty that they had never experienced. It is the specifics of this poverty that represent the most appalling concern Steinbeck has for the “Okies”.
The difficulty that the “Okies” experienced in securing jobs was not because of a lack of demand for labor; as we have already discovered in the deportation and removal of foreign labor, new forms of cheap labor were needed. Because of the way that California agriculture is set up, large numbers of workers are required in order to harvest a specific crop (nearly 2000 per orchard/field depending on the time of year). This large number of workers, however, is only needed for a brief period of time during the main harvests, after which time they are sent away and must wander the state in search of a new job (pg 20). The massive number of “Okies” that immigrated into California thus created a major problem. Workers were needed, but not in such great numbers. At a given time there were as many as 150,000 homeless migrants across California searching for a way to make enough money so that they
and/or families were able to stay with them for a time. The fact that some of these people were immigrants, even those who lacked the experience and skills to manage a refugee-bureau and had to relocate all to New York. They seemed to have no social safety net, no way to work, no opportunity, no means of livelihood, no support for their families. This created an increasing shortage of qualified laborers, unable to work, working for low wages, and often simply unwell. In one situation one family, for instance, was unable to pick a tree that would grow under their roof, and when asked about the possible conditions, they could not answer. The main reason that many of these refugees were not able to find a job in their area was because they had been deported for many years, many of which had been in the service industry. While many of these refugees could work and make income, the rest did not have the skills, experience, or the money to pay for it.
Once again, I have documented the problems that the immigrant population of California has experienced (i.e. they are facing increasing numbers of unemployment for lack of good work experience, work problems, even family problems) and they are facing massive challenges. If you want to educate, I can offer two suggestions about how to solve these problems: 1) Get involved in education. Education is a critical part of the immigrant and refugee lives that is important for immigrants, because students who speak English are often able to communicate and understand complex and complex situations. And if teachers are involved, they will help students learn new skills quickly and without having to deal with a long term learning process as well as the problems of being a student in the current environment. 2) Find job opportunities. While this might be easy, there is a real risk that immigrant and refugee workers are being displaced because of their own lack of job opportunities or because they are not being paid sufficiently to obtain a job. I would even suggest that you find opportunities to join the local education system in order to get to someplace that provides decent job training and also provides a source of income. For these reasons, I have listed some options.
In my previous posts I have provided an excellent overview and explanation of what these factors mean. In short, I have included these factors because I feel most important to help identify the root motivation and causes of these problems – but I believe that in the long run it is most important to do something about and provide the support that can hopefully provide those in need.
I believe that, in the long term, we cannot simply ignore certain things. We must look at the large scale events, situations and cultural changes that exist in the society, and we must look into the whole economic structure of the country and take an open look at the economic reality of this particular situation. Because so much of current economic and political conditions don’t seem to change quickly and can go unnoticed, we have to put our efforts, even in ways that we cannot even anticipate. This means focusing on our efforts, as well as focusing our efforts on implementing these solutions, while also doing what can be done to improve our life and our economic situation. In that way, we may well solve a lot of these problems.
I have