Migrant Workers Into Horrible Living Conditions example essay topic

People Trying to Make a Living Throughout the past four weeks, we have been examining the labor conditions involved in harvesting coffee. Having never studied this subject, I was shocked by what these laborers endure. Since its discovery, coffee has had a huge impact on cultures throughout the world. Many countries, especially Brazil, immediately adopted coffee as an important crop once it was introduced to them. Although this crop brought prosperity to many of these nations, it also brought massive amounts of slaves in order to harvest it all. Eventually, slavery was abolished, and a new class of people emerged who worked the fields and lived in extreme poverty.

These laborers still live in these same conditions today. This extreme poverty is a result of the fact that many migrant workers come to the country because where they came from conditions were much worse. Compared to the United States, these migrant workers have an awful life. This drastic difference shows how much more diverse and advanced the United States' economy is, and how Brazil must change its economic and immigration policies. In order to understand this difference in the situations of migrant workers, we must first focus on what these economies are based. Let us look at a large coffee producing, South American country.

According to the documentary, Coffee: a Sackful of Power, Brazil developed its economy based on coffee. In the early 1600's, Brazil monopolized on the coffee product by using slave labor to harvest the massive amounts of crops. The result of this focus on coffee was that the entire economy was based nearly completely on one product. Once slavery was abolished, Brazil suddenly found itself with millions of unemployed ex slaves. Brazil lost massive amounts of revenue because now they had to pay laborers to harvest the coffee crop.

In order to solve this problem, Brazil began importing cheap foreign labor in order to drive the wages down. This act created a problem because many native Brazilians were and still are forced to work for much lower wages than if there were no immigrants. Because these laborers work form day to day, they cannot obtain any skills; therefore they are stricken to this life of poverty (Valenti). If all of the workers have only this one skill there is no specialization; therefore, the owners can control the prices for a job since laborers have no other options for jobs. Not only is there only one main job for laborers, but also there are constantly migrant workers coming to the country, making it harder for people to get jobs. Also, the increase in population drives the wages down because demand for jobs increases, allowing the owners to set wages at a lower price.

This unique situation has forced the migrant workers into horrible living conditions where most of them are forced to live on the plantations with the plantation owners (Dictum and Luttinger 44). After examining this economy we shall see how it drastically differs from that of the United States. The United States is rather unique compared to the other countries in the world. We are the land of opportunity where anyone can make it. Our economy is probably the most diverse in the world. When it was first founded, America was mainly a place used for its raw materials.

The economy was based around various crops which were harvested, refined and shipped to large, wealthy countries. Over many years, the United States became a nation that used raw materials in order to create its own refine products. Today, the U.S. has become so diverse in its economy it can almost control prices on foreign goods. Because there is so much diversity in the economy, there are many job opportunities for migrant workers. Business is growing at such a high rate, these migrant workers from the U.S. are actually in demand; therefore, these migrant workers live in much better conditions than those from Brazil.

Due to the nature and diversity of the U.S. economy it differs largely from that of Brazil. Although we know now that there is a massive difference in the general economies of these two countries today, if we look back at when America had just been discovered, there are many similarities in the two economies. Both of these countries relied on cash crops and cheap labor. In order to make conditions better for migrant workers, Brazil must put better restrictions on immigration and begin to focus on helping its own citizens, much like the U.S. This way, more jobs will open up to the natives and wages will slowly rise. Today, Brazil continues to export the raw material, coffee, to countries like the U.S. According to the documentary Coffee: A Sackful of Power, the U.S. is related to Brazil due to the fact that the coffee prices are actually regulated by our market (Avanti). This fact says a whole lot about the general economies of both of our nations because it is actually our country that controls how much these migrant workers make.

If were not so concentrated on coffee as a main source for the economy, then we would not be able to control the prices of coffee. If Brazil could control their own prices then the migrant workers would not have to live in such poor conditions. If they ever want to become a truly successful country, Brazil must further diversify its economy and impose stricter immigration laws. As of right now, countries like the U.S. control the prices of the coffee product, yet they do not grow it. We think that people making five dollars an hour in the United States are living in poverty, but there are people in Brazil who make literally just enough to live from day to day. If Brazil does not do something for its citizens, it will only hurt the country in the long run because their cheap labor drives the price so low it allows the U.S. to basically control their prices.

Finally, if laborers continue to live in these conditions, they will lose all faith in the government and there are many problems that could result form there such as a civil war.