The Invisibility of Farmworkers: Implications and Remedies

This article highlights the invisibility of farmworkers in Michigan, a state dependent on migrant labor for more than one hundred years. The study describes migrant housing camps using data from observations, visits to housing camps, and the shadowing of outreach staff from service organizations. Although regulated, accommodations are minimal, substandard, and overcrowded, affecting the health and well-being of workers. The study describes what farmworkers do in their scant evening hours, the vulnerability of H-2A guest workers, the meticulousness accompanying outreach, and how farmworkers are visible to outreach staff. The study concludes by highlighting how farmworkers are just as invisible as their housing camps, their contributions to the food movement, and their erasure from historic tales and promotional materials distributed in local tourist towns, which only stress the contributions of some groups. The article underscores the value of outreach, the outstanding work performed by outreach staff, and avenues for increasing the visibility and advocacy on behalf of farmworkers.