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Immigration has been What was the bracero program? It was an immigration program created through a political, social, series of bilateral agreements between the United States and economic hot-button issue Mexico in 1942. The program was designed to alleviate farm labor shortages in almost every decade since the UUnited States caused by American entry into World War II and help Mexican farm laborers get work.S. became its own country. Whether they are Italian, Irish, AsianEssentially, or Middle Eastern, immigrants have made the United States their home and have introduced new and influential cultures agreed to the country. Unfortunately for migrantsallow Mexican farm laborers, "Braceros" in Spanish, there are usually enormous issues facing them from their initial decision to migrate come to the US to augment the U.SUS farm labor force. Debates about immigration policy, including recent discussions about how documented and even years after they arriveundocumented workers fit into the American labor system, are reminders of the United States’ biggest experiment with guest workers: the bracero program.

Within the past century, Mexican migrants have seen some of the worst treatment and political hostility when it comes to migrant worker and immigrant history. Although there is no comparison agricultural workers were brought to other groups of individuals immigrating to the U.S., Mexican migrant farms to replace American workers have a fascinating history because of dislocated by the Uwar.S. – Mexico border and The program was intended as a temporary wartime solution, but American farms’ growing dependence on Mexican labor kept the political and economic policies and programs that Mexico and program active for two decades beyond the Uwar’s end.S. have created within Over the life of the last century. One program, in particularbetween 1942 and 1964, nearly 5 million Mexican men came to the United States on temporary, short-term agricultural contracts. The bracero program is the focus historically controversial, prompting scholars to debate whether it was an opportunity for migrant workers or exploitation of this article, the Bracero ProgramMexican labor. It’s significance It continues to the current issues surrounding immigration are paramount shape discussions of modern trade agreements and will continue color ideas about how, and whether, to provide an example of the violent process and discriminatory cycle that Mexican citizens go through as utilize migrant laborers in the U.Slabor.

====Problems In Mexico Pre-Roots of the Bracero Program====There was a slew of factors that lead to the creation of this program, but the The bracero program would not have never been either viable as easily implemented or necessary as popular without the economic and cultural relationship established between Mexico and the United States since the late nineteenth century and if Mexico Mexican citizens could have made a living in Mexico. The key factors are: First, Mexican economy had been uprooted by the Mexican Revolution. Second, the leadership of Profirio (1910–1920); President Porfirio Diaz who had opened up Mexico’s economy to the United States. Third, other countries began in the early 1920s; railroad building railroads across Mexico had created passageways to and from the United States creating the passageways for future migrants to travel. Fourth, north; and the Mexican government and companies based in the U.S. United States had bought land in Mexico. Eventually, most for the building of the land owned by farmers and working poor were swallowed up by these companies. Without this land, Mexican citizens who used to farm had no other means to provide for their families. Finally, new ‘’maquiladoras’’ or factories maquiladoras (mainly cotton factories) being built in Mexico, many Mexicans would flood to those and begin to migrate towards throughout the railroads and factories internally.<ref> Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 35-371910s.</ref>

In 1910, many of the workers employed Land originally owned by the cotton ‘’maquiladoras’’ farmers and Communist Party members joined the ranks of Pancho Villa as the Mexican Revolution began. These workers continued to fight for workers rights and better wages within the ‘’maquiladoras’’ over the next three decades. Their efforts were hampered because they didn't own any land and Mexico's economic growth was lackluster after Diaz’s reign ended. Even though the Mexican working poor had helped the government come to powerwere swallowed up by these companies, they had leaving these Mexican citizens with no real choice but other means to head to the Uprovide for their families.S. to improve their financial conditionsThe economic circumstances and infrastructural possibilities were set for a culture of migratory labor. <ref>Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 35-37. See also Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 37.</ref>  ====The Bracero Programs sought to ensure access to Cheap Guest Workers for American Farms====Whatever the circumstances, Mexico has long been a source of cheap temporary labor for the United States. Until the establishment of the U.S. Border Patrol in 1924, citizens of both countries crossed the border at will, and farmers in the southwestern United States recruited seasonal workers from Mexico without government oversight. Mexican workers also maintained the productivity of American agriculture after the United States entered World War I. The bracero program, at least on paper, was an extension of this type of labor arrangement—a more formal and more tightly supervised agreement to provide an adequate labor force during another global military conflict. <ref>Gonzalez, Gilbert G. Guest Workers or Colonized Labor? Mexican Labor Migration to the United States. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2005. Study of the state of Mexican labor immigration to the United States into the early twenty-first century.</ref>

The Bracero Program, officially named the Labor Importation Program, was created for straightforward economic reasons. In the 1930s, white Anglos farmers began In mid-1941, as it became clearer to migrate U.S. leaders that the nation would have to more urban and industrial cities enter World War II, American farmers raised the possibility that there would again be a need, as had occurred during the First World War, for foreign workers to find jobsmaintain agricultural productivity. As a big chunk of the The United States population shifted from rural to urban areaslooked south for that labor, requesting that the United States Mexican government realized it needed provide workers to bring in labor from outside address the ongoing demands of the American agribusinesses supporting the country war effort and to help pick replace the cropspoor white, black, and Latino Americans were leaving farms to occupy jobs in better-paying industrialized factories.<ref>Cohen, 111</ref>

After the Great Depression and the consequential ‘repatriation’ of thousands of Mexican and even U.S. born citizens Mexico was initially hesitant, owing to strained racist cultural relations that had migrated to been brewing through the U.S1930s. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 ultimately pushed Mexican leadership into providing workers for the United States as political refugees from a way to actively contribute to the Mexican RevolutionAllied war effort. The U.SMexican government also believed that participation in such a program would modernize their country, transforming it into a modern nation-state. Even so, before Mexico would enter into a cooperative labor program with the United States, the nation demanded that four major issues be addressed: # No Mexican workers would serve in the American military# Mexican workers would not be subject to discrimination# Mexican workers would eventually decided be given transportation to bring back some and from their jobs, would be provided with decent living conditions, and would be repatriated at the end of the their contracts# Mexican workers it had kicked out. Mexican migrants would not be a scapegoat for many decades used to replace domestic servants or to come reduce wage levels Those concerns were addressed, and each economic downturn in the U.Sfinal agreement that established the bracero program was signed on August 4, 1942. would automatically create a ‘’Mexican problem’’<ref>Edward Kosack, a cycle thrust “The Bracero Program and Effects on Human Capital Investments in to existence by this first ‘repatriation’ during the Great DepressionMexico, 1942–1964,” 2013, http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Kosack. pdf</ref>

In 1942, ====Migrants and Scapegoats====<dh-ad/> Opponents of the U.Sprogram in both nations raised concerns almost immediately. Labor unions in the United States argued that no significant wartime labor shortage existed and Mexico struck therefore no justification for a deal that would allow Mexican citizens to become temporary large continuing influx of migrant workers in the U.S. agricultural systems. This program was supposed to be completely under the supervision Mexico and Mexican laborers raised an issue with violations of the U.S. federal government and agreement, including that all contracts would be overseen by them. NeverthelessAmerican growers made Mexican workers pay for food, lodging, between 1947 and 1951tools, the federal government had given up their role as supervisor and allowed for workers and employers required them to create perform tasks beyond those specified in their own contracts, allowing . Racism was also a common experience for certain types of discriminatory practicesthe braceros, such as extremely low pay and shanti-like living quarters. After waiting sometimes weeks on end to enter was being paid wages that were far below levels required by the Uprogram.S. they were allowed <ref>Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects inthe Postwar United States and Mexico’’, stripped (Chapel Hill: The University of their clothes and sprayed with DDTNorth Carolina Press, 2011), a toxic chemical thought to rid Mexican migrants of diseases that they were presumed to be carrying in to the U212-213.See also Robert S. Following thatRobinson, “Taking The Fair Deal to the men would then undergo a medical examination and only the men who seemed impoverishedFields: Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor, poorPublic Law 78, and only spoke Spanish were picked by the farmers.<ref>’’Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program’’Program, 1950–1952. Films On Demand” ‘’Agricultural History’’ 84, no. 3 (2010. Accessed May 21, 2016. http)://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103120&xtid=43712399.</ref>

Regardless of complaints or violations, the program was renewed in 1947, with Mexicans expanding their work to railroads. The agricultural aspects of the agreement were also renewed in 1951, during the Korean War. Aware of the checkered history of the program, in the early 1950s President Harry S. Truman established a commission to study the agreement, evaluate complaints and violations, and suggest reforms. Any recommendations made by the commission were ignored, ultimately, because the program was economically popular among growers (because of cheap labor) and consumers (who paid lower prices for bracero-harvest crops). President John F. Kennedy finally ended the bracero program in 1964 after his commission determined (and convinced Congress) that the agreement was negatively affecting wages, employment opportunities, and the working conditions of domestic laborers. ====Bracero Program's Significance====<div class=Migrants and Scapegoats"portal" style='float:right; width:35%'> ====Related Articles===={{#dpl:category=United States History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=6}}</div>The Bracero Program had major effects on both the Mexican economy and the U.S. agricultural business and immigration policies. Mexico would never truly recuperate from all of the migrants that were lost and the implementation of NAFTA only exacerbated the economic issues that it faced. Small farmers in Mexico would continuously have to compete with U.S. imported produce that was ironically being picked by Mexican migrant workers.

As the Korean War came to the surface in the 1950sAdditionally, many U.S. citizens had once again felt that the ‘’illegal’’ migrants were getting out of control and were a threat to the U.S. economy in a volatile time. This time the ‘repatriation’ had a name, Operation Wetback. Under President Eisenhower, this operation United States would successfully deport over one million continuously rely on Mexican and U.S. citizens by 1954. <ref>Deborah Cohen, ‘’Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico’’, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 212-213.</ref> At this point, legislation had fallen through two years prior under President Truman, who tried to reinstate some kind of rights for the Latin American migrant workerswhile calling for more border reinforcement. Unfortunately, the big agricultural companies and their lobbyists NAFTA would thwart any efforts he had tried continuously allow products to make in order to come up with humane laws that flow through the growers had to follow in order to keep migrant laborers safe and well-paid. <ref> Robert S. Robinson, “Taking The Fair Deal to border but would police the Fields: Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor, Public Law 78, and the Bracero Program, 1950–1952.” ‘’Agricultural History’’ 84, no. 3 (2010): 399bodies that would cross. </ref>

The migrant worker population Finally, NAFTA would further destroy Mexico’s economy because of mass migration out of Mexico with no money returning. With Operation Wetback in full effect directly in the middle of the Bracero Programs existence, the simultaneous need for labor and need cause enormous job losses for scapegoats would not help Mexico’s situation economically. In the U.S. the anti-Mexican sentiment citizens to new ‘’maquiladoras’’ that would push migrant workers in the Southwest continue to organize for their rights flourish with the help aid of organizations such as the United Farm Workersnew trade agreement.<ref> Bill Ong Hing, ‘’Ethical Borders: NAFTA, the United CanneryGlobalization, Agriculturaland Mexican Migration’’, Packing(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, and Allied Workers of America2010), and League of United Latin American Citizens. Such organizations were pivotal in creating the momentum for a larger Chicano Movement or ‘’El Movimiento’’ in the Southwest5.</ref>

====Conclusion==== The Bracero Program is still a relatively unknown historical event. Needless to say, the program had major affects on both the Mexican economy and the U.S. agricultural business and immigration policies. Mexico would never truly recuperate from all of the migrants that were lost and the implementation of NAFTA only exacerbated the economic issues that it faced. Small farmers in Mexico would continuously have to compete with U.S. imported produce that was ironically being picked by Mexican migrant workers. Additionally, the U.S. would continuously rely on Mexican and Latin American migrant workers while calling for more border reinforcement. NAFTA would continuously allow products to flow through the border but would police the bodies that would cross. Finally, NAFTA would cause enormous job losses for U.S. citizens to new ‘’maquiladras’’ that would continue to flourish with the aid of the new trade agreement. <ref> Bill Ong Hing, ‘’Ethical Borders: NAFTA, Globalization, and Mexican Migration’’, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010), 5.</ref> Essentially, the Bracero Program is important for was a vital part of U.S. and Mexican history because it is a as part of a larger pattern that the U.S. constantly involves itself in and of migrant labor practices, whether considered opportunity or exploitation; only when we acknowledge this pattern can we begin to change the way that migrant labor is handled in the future.

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