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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 U.S. became it’s own countryUnited States caused by American entry into World War II and help Mexican farm laborers get work. 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 U.S. and even years after they arrive. 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 to other groups of individuals immigrating US to augment the U.SUS farm labor force.Debates about immigration policy, Mexican migrant including recent discussions about how documented and undocumented workers have an interesting history because of the U.S. – Mexico border and the political and economic policies and programs that Mexico and fit into the U.S. have created within the last century. One program in particular is the focus of this articleAmerican labor system, the Bracero Program. It’s significance to the current issues surrounding immigration are paramount and will continue to provide an example reminders of the violent and discriminatory cycle that Mexican citizens go through as migrant laborers in United States’ biggest experiment with guest workers: the U.Sbracero program.

==Problems In Mexico Pre-Bracero Program==There are a slough of factors that lead to the creation of this program, but in order to fully understand it’s impact, it is important to layout the transnational creation of large migrant working population in Mexico. The factors that are most important begin with the Mexican Revolution and the leadership of Profirio Diaz who opened up Mexico’s economy agricultural workers were brought to the U.S. and other countries who began building factories and railroads farms to replace American workers dislocated by the Uwar.S. creating The program was intended as a temporary wartime solution, but American farms’ growing dependence on Mexican labor kept the passageways program active for future migrants to travel in to two decades beyond the U.Swar’s end. The Mexican government and companies based in Over the U.S. would buy land and eventually most life of the land owned by farmers program, between 1942 and working poor would be swallowed up. Without this land 1964, nearly 5 million Mexican citizens who used to farm had no other means to provide for their families. With new ‘’maquiladoras’’ or factories (mainly cotton factories) being built, many Mexicans would flood to those and begin men came to internally migrate towards the railroads and factories.<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)on temporary, 35short-37term agricultural contracts.</ref> In 1910The bracero program is historically controversial, many of the prompting scholars to debate whether it was an opportunity for migrant workers employed by the cotton ‘’maquiladoras’’ and Communist Party members would join the ranks or exploitation of Pancho Villa as the Mexican Revolution beginslabor. These workers would continue It continues to fight for workers rights and better wages within the ‘’maquiladoras’’ over the next three decades but without any real land ownership shape discussions of modern trade agreements and the poor economic environment that lingered after Diaz’s reignwill color ideas about how, Mexican working and poor and the government it helped come to powerwhether, had no real choice but to head to the U.S. process and it’s economic policies. <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), 37utilize migrant labor.</ref>

====Roots of the Bracero Program====The bracero program would not have been as easily implemented or as popular without the economic and cultural relationship established between Mexico and the United States since the late nineteenth century and if Mexican citizens could have made a living in Mexico. The Mexican economy had been uprooted by the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920); President Porfirio Diaz had opened Mexico’s economy to the United States in the early 1920s; railroad building across Mexico had created passageways to and from the north, and the Mexican government and companies based in the United States had bought land in Mexico for the building of maquiladoras (cotton factories) throughout the 1910s.  The land originally owned by farmers and the working poor were swallowed up by these companies, leaving these Mexican citizens with no other means to provide for their families. The 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 Creation of the Program====

The Bracero Program, officially named the Labor Importation Program, was created for straightforward economic reasons. In the 1930s, white Anglos In mid-1941, as it became clearer to U.S. leaders that the nation would have to enter World War II, American farmers raised the possibility that there would again be a need, as had decided occurred during the First World War, for foreign workers to maintain agricultural productivity. The United States looked south for that labor, requesting that the Mexican government provide workers to move in address the ongoing demands of the American agribusinesses supporting the war effort and to replace the more urban poor white, black, and industrious cities Latino Americans who were leaving farms to occupy jobs in order better-paying industrialized factories. <ref>Cohen, 111</ref>  Mexico was initially hesitant, owing to gain more wealth than what they strained racist cultural relations that had been earning working their cropsbrewing through the 1930s. With this huge shift from rural The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 ultimately pushed Mexican leadership into providing workers for the United States as a way to actively contribute to urban industries, the Allied war effort. The Mexican government had to make an important decision to bring 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 force 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 able subject to sustain discrimination# Mexican workers would be given transportation to and from their jobs, would be provided with decent living conditions, and would be repatriated at the end of their contracts# Mexican workers would not be used to replace domestic servants or to reduce wage levels Those concerns were addressed, and the final agreement that established the bracero program was signed on August 4, 1942.<ref>Edward Kosack, “The Bracero Program and Effects on Human Capital Investments in Mexico, 1942–1964,” 2013, http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Kosack.pdf</ref> ====Migrants and Scapegoats====<dh-ad/> Opponents of the program in both nations raised concerns almost immediately. Labor unions in the United States argued that no significant wartime labor shortage existed and therefore no justification for a large urban population continuing influx of migrant workers. Mexico and help pick Mexican laborers raised an issue with violations of the crops agreement, including that would feed American growers made Mexican workers pay for food, lodging, and tools, and required themto perform tasks beyond those specified in their contracts. Racism was also a common experience for the braceros, as was being paid wages that were far below levels required by the program. <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. See also Robert S. Robinson, “Taking The Fair Deal to the Fields: Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor, Public Law 78, and the Bracero Program, 1950–1952.” ‘’Agricultural History’’ 84, no. 3 (2010): 399.</ref>

After Regardless of complaints or violations, the program was renewed in 1947, with Mexicans expanding their work to railroads. The agricultural aspects of the Great Depression and agreement were also renewed in 1951, during the consequential ‘repatriation’ Korean War. Aware of thousands the checkered history of Mexican and even U.the program, in the early 1950s President Harry S. born citizens that had migrated Truman established a commission to study the Uagreement, evaluate complaints and violations, and suggest reforms.S. as political refugees from Any recommendations made by the Mexican Revolutioncommission were ignored, ultimately, because the Uprogram was economically popular among growers (because of cheap labor) and consumers (who paid lower prices for bracero-harvest crops).SPresident John F. would eventually decide to bring back some of Kennedy finally ended the workers it had kicked out. Mexican migrants would be a scapegoat for many decades to come bracero program in 1964 after his commission determined (and each economic downturn in convinced Congress) that the U.S. would automatically create a ‘’Mexican problem’’agreement was negatively affecting wages, employment opportunities, a cycle thrust in to existence by this first ‘repatriation’ during and the Great Depressionworking conditions of domestic laborers.

In 1942, the U.S. and Mexico struck a deal that would allow Mexican citizens to become temporary workers in the U.S. agricultural systems. This program was supposed to be completely under the supervision of the U.S. federal government and that all contracts would be overseen by them. Nevertheless, between 1947 and 1951, the federal government had given up their role as supervisor and allowed for workers and employers to create their own contracts, allowing for certain types of discriminatory practices, such as extremely low pay and shanti-like living quarters. After waiting sometimes weeks on end to enter the U.S. they were allowed in, stripped of their clothes and sprayed with DDT, a toxic chemical thought to rid Mexican migrants of diseases that they were presumed to be carrying in to the U.S. Following that, the men would then undergo a medical examination and only the men who seemed impoverished, poor, and only spoke Spanish were picked by the farmers.<ref>’’Harvest of Loneliness: The ====Bracero Program’’. Films On Demand. 2010. Accessed May 21, 2016. http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wIDProgram's Significance===103120&xtid=43712.</ref>

==Migrants The Bracero Program had major effects on both the Mexican economy and Scapegoats==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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