12/06/2006

Study: Migrant services lacking

GRAND RAPIDS (AP) — A new state study described as the first comprehensive estimate since 1990 of the number of Michigan's migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families indicates that they need more and better support services.

"This report is about more than just providing adequate medical, educational and housing-related services to the farm workers who support our agricultural industry,” Linda V. Parker, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, said Tuesday. "Michigan's agricultural industry cannot survive without farm workers. Understanding and thus more efficiently and effectively serving the farm-working community is an economic and moral imperative.”

The findings will be used to obtain grants and federal funds to improve such services where they are needed the most. The estimates of the numbers and demographics of migrant and seasonal farm workers are expected to better allocate these services.

"This study confirms that services for workers and their families are needed, particularly for their children,” Martha Gonzalez-Cortes, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services' Office of Migrant Affairs, said in a written statement. "We're equipped with real numbers to help Michigan qualify for federal funding and for grants to provide these services.”

The Michigan Interagency Migrant Service Committee oversaw the commissioned study, released Friday and primarily paid for by a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Michigan Department of Education also provided funding.

The Office of Migrant Affairs is the lead agency for the committee, which is made up of representatives of 25 state and federal agencies and advocacy groups. Gonzalez-Cortes chairs the committee.

The study defines a seasonal farm worker as someone whose principal employment within the last two years has been in agriculture on a seasonal basis. A migrant farm worker is defined similarly but "establishes for the purposes of such employment a temporary abode.”

It also looks at the number of non-farm workers in farm worker households and estimates the percentage of children and teens.

The study, which compiled and analyzed existing data rather than conducting surveys or counts, estimates there are a total of 90,716 migrant and seasonal farm workers and non-farm workers in Michigan. A total of 41,038 in farm worker families are younger than 20, including nearly 70 percent who are younger than 13.

The average worker family numbered five members.

Ottawa County had the largest estimated number of migrant and seasonal farm workers with 6,030, followed by Oceana County (4,855), Van Buren County (3,898), Berrien County (3,365) and Kent County (3,280). All five counties are in the western or southwestern Lower Peninsula.

The worker estimates include four primary agricultural industry classifications: field and orchard agriculture, food processing, greenhouse and nursery production, and reforestation. The figures do not include livestock or poultry farming, trucking or equipment operation, dairies or fisheries.

The study did not compare the new estimates with figures from previous reports, such as the one prepared in 1990.