Images of Dust Bowl migrants, made famous in John Steinbeck's best-selling novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), tend to dominate the historical memory of migrant workers during the Great Depression Depression Depression era. However, as thousands of Okies and Arkies hit the road in search of survival, they joined migrant workers who had traveled the nation in search of work long before the Depression and who would continue to do so for decades to follow. These migrants, many of whom are racial and ethnic minorities, have always worked for low wages and lived in horrible conditions. The Great Depression only exacerbated their harsh circumstances. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Estimating the absolute number of migrant workers during any decade is difficult. In 1937, sociologist Paul S. Taylor tentatively estimated that there were between 200,000 and 350,000 migrant workers traveling to the United States annually. Although many migrants worked in California, where some would be displaced by arriving Dust Bowl migrants, migrant labor was not just a West Coast phenomenon. For example, thousands of Mexican and Mexican-American migrant workers toiled across the nation, from the cotton fields of Texas to the sugar beet fields of Colorado, Michigan, and Ohio. Thousands of southern whites and African Americans (mostly displaced sharecroppers from Georgia and Alabama) worked regularly along the Atlantic coast, toiling in the winter months in the Florida Everglades and in the northern states during the summer. And finally, thousands of other migrant workers traveled less clear paths across dozens of states in search of work. The Great Depression, which began in the 1920s for many agricultural regions of the nation, worsened the hardships faced by migrant workers. While the number of workers looking for work increased during the Depression, the amount of land under cultivation decreased. Additionally, farmers facing economic hardship – falling crop prices, rising taxes, and rising debt – looked for ways to reduce costs, and reducing workers' wages was often the only option they had. The surplus of labor (in 1933 in California there were approximately 2.36 workers for every available job) made it extremely difficult for workers to be paid the full value of their labor. As a result, wages across the nation fell during the Depression. Migrant workers in California who earned 35 cents an hour in 1928 earned only 14 cents an hour in 1933. Sugar beet workers in Colorado saw their wages fall from $27 per acre in 1930 to $12.37 per acre three years later. In Texas, migrant families during the Depression could expect annual earnings of between $278 and $500, hundreds of dollars below what experts at the time estimated it would cost a family of four to simply survive. workers in the country: Migrant workers also tended to live in horrible conditions. It was not uncommon for farmers to house migrant workers in shacks, sheds, chicken coops, barns, portable wagons, and even open fields. Those who found refuge inside small huts or abandoned farms often had to deal with broken windows, torn mosquito nets, missing doors and leaking roofs. Most migrants, whether living alone in camps or in specially designated migrant camps, remained isolated from surrounding communities.Often considered racial and class outcasts, migrant workers were shunned by local communities. While the nation's industrial workers could look to the New Deal to address some of their problems, migrant workers found themselves largely outside the scope of most programs and legislation. Discussing the status of migrant workers in the United States, historian Cindy Hahamovitch argued that they were, in effect, “stateless.” Unlike industrial workers who won the right to organize unions and bargain collectively, migrant workers were left outside the bounds of major New Deal legislation. Neither Section 7a of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 nor the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 included migrant farm workers. When Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act establishing minimum wage provisions in 1938, agricultural workers were once again exempt from federal protections afforded to other types of workers. Certainly the political weight of agricultural interests helped keep farm workers outside the protections of the New Deal. Idealistic notions about farm work and rural America may also have made it difficult to pass legislation to protect or empower migrant workers. Even legislation passed explicitly to address the problems facing rural America – the Agricultural Adjustment Act – has done little to help migrant workers. Indeed, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) likely worsened conditions for many migrant workers who saw their jobs disappear along with the crop reductions required by the AAA. Additionally, the jobs of many agricultural workers were eliminated as farmers used their government salaries to purchase new machinery. The only New Deal agency that attempted to address the needs of migrant workers was the Resettlement Administration, which was replaced by the Farm Security Administration (FSA). By 1942, the FSA had built ninety-five camps, which could accommodate approximately 75,000 workers. Many of these camps provided shelter, health services, schools, laundry services, and adult education programs. With the exception of the FSA camps, when migrant workers turned to the state for help, they faced an uphill battle. Racist public and private relief agencies across the nation, but especially in the South and West, often denied benefits to migrant workers or gave them benefits far less than those given to other workers. Federal relief agencies, including the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, also worked collaboratively with local officials to time relief benefits around growing seasons. Migrant workers often saw their meager benefits cut at the same time as their labor was needed in the fields. In this way, the federal government has helped maintain a vulnerable, low-income workforce. Mexican and Mexican-American migrant workers felt the full force of state power during the Great Depression. As noncitizens, many Mexicans were barred from participating in public works projects available to other poor workers. Furthermore, communities that looked for a scapegoat to explain the Depression often blamed Mexicans. Working together, private charities, municipal governments, and Mexican consuls helped repatriate thousands of Mexicans and even Mexican Americans to Mexico. Many of these men, women and children.