Settlement and Migration under the Global Fresh-Produce Industry: Indigenous Farm Laborers in Baja California, Mexico

在过去的几十年里，墨西哥北部的生鲜农产品行业出现了显著的扩张。美国对新鲜蔬菜的需求，美国在墨西哥农业综合企业的扩张，以及墨西哥支持出口的农业宏观经济发展政策，都满足了这一需求。德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校的人类学家Christian Zlolniski博士将在研究生研究人员的协助下，研究这些发展对来自墨西哥南部的土著农场工人的影响，他们已经被商业农业的就业所吸引，在该地区定居下来。这项研究将解决三个主要问题：1)该行业的就业是否有助于减少土著工人向美国的劳动力迁移？2)当地新鲜农产品行业的工作在多大程度上提高了土著农场劳工的就业稳定性和经济流动性？3)这些工人和家庭动员了哪些经济、社会和政治资源来在这个人口稀少的地区建立新的社区？Zlolniski和他的团队将在下加利福尼亚州圣昆丁山谷的三个棚户区的Mixtec、Triqui和Zapotec工人中进行民族志田野调查。他们将采用各种研究方法，包括参与观察和对每个殖民地的族裔领袖和农场工人进行深入访谈；以及对每个殖民地的家庭样本进行半结构化访谈，以考察定居如何影响农场工人的职业和经济机会以及移民历史(特别是移民到美国)。出口农业已成为许多发展中国家的一项共同经济增长战略。该项目将通过深入研究墨西哥北部地方一级的外延农业的成本和收益，为国际、国家和地方经济影响之间的关系的社会科学理论做出贡献。这项研究将帮助政策制定者评估墨西哥/美国边境地区商业农业的影响，特别是其对移民到美国的影响。

Over the past few decades, there has been a singificant expansion of the fresh-produce industry in northern Mexico. It has been fuled by American demand for fresh vegetables, the expansion of United States agribusinesses in Mexico, and Mexican pro-export agriculture macroeconomic development policies. University of Texas at Arlington anthropologist, Dr. Christian Zlolniski, assisted by graduate student researchers, will examine the impact of these developments on indigenous farmworkers from Southern Mexico who have settled down in this region attracted by employment in commercial agriculture. The research will address three main questions: 1) Has employment in this industry contributed to reduce labor migration of indigenous workers to the United States? 2) To what extent has work in the local fresh-produce industry enhanced the employment stability and economic mobility of indigenous farm laborers? 3) What economic, social, and political resources do these workers and families mobilize to build new communities in this scarcely populated region?Zlolniski and his team will conduct ethnographic fieldwork among Mixtec, Triqui, and Zapotec workers in three squatter settlements in the San Quintin Valley in Baja California. They will employ a variety of research methods, including participant observation and in-depth interviews with ethnic leaders and farmworkers in each of these colonias; and semi-structured interviews with a sample of households in each of these settings to examine how settlement has shaped farmworker occupational and economic opportunities, and migration histories (especially, migration to the United States).Export agriculture has become a common economic growth strategy in many developing countries. This project will contribute to social science theory of the relationship between internantional, national, and local economic effects, by examining in depth the costs and benefits of expoert agriculture at the local level in northern Mexico. The study will help policy makers assess the impacts of commercial agriculture in the Mexico/United States border areas, particularly its effects on migration to the United States.