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Care For
Migrant Workers
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The debate about immigration issues continues, but for thousands of migrants this is peak season and the crops won’t wait. We visited a blueberry farm in Maine, to hear more about the harsh realities of working in the fields. Some neighbors welcome the workers every year and want outsiders to remember that not all of them are illegal immigrants. Reed Galin reports. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Washington County, Maine)
The work is backbreaking. Life isn’t easy for those toiling 10 to 12
hours a day in the wild blueberry fields of Maine … usually for less
than minimum wage.
Armando Aguilar/Honduran Migrant Worker: “We work here and then we work
there, and we don’t make very much money. And so we can’t afford the
medicines and things that we need.”
The blueberry harvest draws a mix of cultures, from Latin American to
Native American.
Donna Augustine/Native American Migrant Worker: “I have to come here to
earn my kids’ school clothes. And I have seven children, which I pretty
much brought up by myself.”
United Methodist churches across New England help with food and clothes
as part of Down East Maine missions. Not all of the migrant workers are
here illegally.
The Rev. Betty Palmer/Jacksonville United Methodist Church: “Some are
here on student visas, and so they’re allowed to be here for education,
but haven’t been able to feed themselves.”
The Rev. Linda Stetter/First United Methodist Church, Marlborough,
Mass.: “They work under harsh conditions, and they have very little
education, and they have no voice. They’re almost invisible.”
It’s not just the migrants who benefit.
The Rev. Betty Palmer/Jacksonville United Methodist Church: “Washington
County is the poorest county in New England. Without the blueberry
income that comes into this county, the trickle-down would be more like
a flood of poverty.”
So these pastors are determined to give help, and hope, and a voice to
migrant workers.
Armando Aguilar/Honduran Migrant Worker: “It’s help that we need, and
we’re very grateful for it.”
TAG:
The workers in Maine usually work through the end of the year,
harvesting cranberries, pinecones and other seasonal items.
For more information about the program to support migrant workers,
contact pastor Betty Palmer at 207-952-0413 or read more at this web
link:
Material Aid Needs.