Study on Shortage of Farm Workers and Implications for Immigration Reform

Farmers have long complained about the shortage of farm workers for quite some time now, as this Wall Street Journal article reported. As a result, farmers have been lobbying Congress for less restrictive immigration laws that would enable them to hire more farm workers or allow those farm workers who are here without authorization to have the opportunity to adjust their status.  Indeed, the current Senate immigration reform proposal includes a provision that deals with a “new agricultural program” that would include, in part, the ability of unauthorized agricultural workers to go on a different path to citizenship that other unauthorized immigrants. 

What if despite all these reforms, farmers would still not be able to hire the workers that they need? This is a possibility according to an interesting study by University of California at Davis Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, J. Edward Taylor and his co-authors, Diane Charlton and Antonio Yunez-Naude.  In their study, the authors explain that a shift in the Mexican economy, which has generated jobs in Mexico, may keep many would-be farm workers, to stay home.  Here’s a link to their paper, “The End of Farm Labor Abundance”: Download Taylor Charlton Yunez Study, 

RCV