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Pandemic highlights poor conditions for some of Canada's farmworkers

Aug 10, 2021
The country is starting to beef up inspections and is looking at a process to set standards for housing farmworkers who are in the country on temporary visas.
The pandemic has highlighted the poor living and working conditions some temporary farmworkers in Canada experience.
Spencer Plat via Getty Images

COVID-19 makes life for migrant Chinese workers even more difficult

Mar 4, 2020
The nearly 170 million Chinese who travel a long way to work are having a tough time returning to their jobs because of quarantine areas.
Migrant workers wearing masks walk to their buses in Jiangxian County, in China's Guizhou province, before departing to return to their jobs in Guangxi region.
STR/AFP via Getty Images

The lucky migrant workers who get to retire in Beijing

Oct 4, 2019
While many people move away from the countryside for work, few of them are able to officially register in the cities.
A man sells dream catchers in Beijing. Few migrant workers from the countryside can stay in the city long term.
Photo courtesy of Shanghai 808 Studio

Why it's the "nonfarm" payrolls report

May 1, 2019
The Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly report doesn't count jobs down on the farm. We explain why.
Farmworkers pull weeds in a spinach field near El Centro, California, in January.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

In China’s big cities, tenants feel the squeeze of rising rents

Feb 13, 2019
Migrant workers like Ren Zhongyang work hard to earn money in Shanghai but struggle to find affordable rental homes there.
Migrant workers like Ren Zhongyang work hard to earn money in Shanghai but struggle to find affordable rental homes in Shanghai.
Charles Zhang

As farmworkers grow scarce, wages are on the rise

Mar 23, 2017
But that's not attracting native-born American laborers to the fields yet, L.A. Times reporter says.
California farmers face such tight labor pools that some are replacing grapes with almonds, which require much less human labor.
John Moore/Getty Images

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Farm workers face shortage of decent, affordable homes

Feb 4, 2016
About three-quarters of hired crop workers work within 75 miles from home.
Former migrant farmworker Angel Castro stands in front of a trailer where he used to live, in a neighborhood that still houses many immigrant farmworkers.
Kristofor Husted

Secrets of the Christmas tree lot

Dec 17, 2014
The Vermont family selling that Christmas tree in Brooklyn? They didn't grow it. A big tree farm did.

Border towns hit hard as fewer migrants cross

Apr 28, 2014
Fewer migrants crossing Arizona’s border mean a slump for towns that relied on the smuggling economy.