A Profile of Food Security, Nutrition and Youth Development Among Migrant Workers in Five Pennsylvan

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A Profile of Food Security, Nutrition and Youth
Development Among Migrant Workers in Five
Pennsylvania Counties
Anastasia Snyder Leif Jensen Katherine L.
Cason The Pennsylvania State University College
of Agricultural Sciences
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Objective of Todays Talk

• Describe our on-going study.
• Provide a profile of health and well-being of
  migrant farm workers in PA and nationwide.
• Discuss the development of migrant youth and some
  of the challenges they face.

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Purpose of the PA Study

• The purpose of this study is to examine the
  health, well-being and food security of migrant
  farm workers in Pennsylvania, and the development
  of their youth.

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Study Objectives

• Collect pilot data on the basic nutrition,
  barriers to good health, food program
  participation, food security, and youth
  development.
• Identify areas where health and food assistance
  programs and youth development services can be
  modified to better serve this population.

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Project Objectives

• Compare survey data to existing data from the
  National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) and
  the Current Population Survey (CPS)
• Provide reliable and current pilot data that can
  serve to objectively identify priorities and
  inform the development of a larger project

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Project Counties
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Sample Characteristics
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Research Methods Data Sources

• Survey data collected from 401 migrant workers in
  5 PA counties.
• NAWS data from 1993-2000 for migrant farm
  workers.
• CPS data from 1999-2000 for U.S. farm workers.
• Key informant interviews from Adams, Franklin and
  Chester counties.
• Focus groups from 5 PA counties.

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Results Demographic Characteristics of PA Sample

• N401
• Mean age 31.6
• 48 Male 52 Female
• 77 born in Mexico
• Mean years lived in U.S. 7.7
• 81 speak Spanish in home

• 100 Hispanic, Mexican or Latino
• Mean years of school completed 8.0

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Participation in Food Assistance Programs
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What best describes your situation during
childhood and now?
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Adult Hunger Have You Ever?
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Child Hunger Has Your Child Ever?
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Levels of Food Insecurity
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Description of 1999/2000 CPS Sample

• N2,112
• 81.9 Male 18.1 Female
• 20.9 born in Mexico
• 72.9 lived in US their entire life

• 28.5 Hispanic, Mexican or Latino
• 45 less than a HS education
• 40.2 below poverty line

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Figure 2. Comparing Food Security among the PA
and CPS Samples
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Description of 1993-2000 NAWS Sample

• N20,578 Ag workers
• 92 born in Mexico
• 53 migrant farm workers
• Analyses on 8,077 migrant farm workers born in
  Mexico
• 16.3 19 or younger, 59.5 29 or younger

• 88.7 male 11.3 female
• 75 less than a HS education
• 70 below poverty
• 54 work 20 or fewer weeks a year
• Half have lived in U.S. 1 year or less.

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Do you, your spouse and your child(ren) have any
health insurance from any source?
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Employee Health and Injury Benefits
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Barriers to Using Health Services
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Language and Literacy
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Language and Literacy
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Public or Social Support in Past 2 Years
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Results from key informant interviews

• Purpose
• Corroborate (or refute) survey results
• Provide deeper and richer information
• Better understanding of policies and programs
• Advice and input into ideas for future research

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Migrant farm worker children What shapes their
lives?

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Migrant farm worker children What shapes their
lives?
Work and schooling
Family formation
Later life Outcomes
Upbringing
Parents
Aspirations
School performance
Culture
Familism
Age at marriage
Educational
Occupation Industry
Status in adulthood
English ability
Educational attainment
Gender role socialization
Country of origin
Occupational
Age at first birth
Labor force participation
Legal status
Marriage and childbearing
Family structure

Education
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Special determinants of health
Food safety
Traditional culture
Nutrition
Americanization
Access to health care
Health
Negotiating the U.S. health care system
Legal status
Low income
Environmental hazards
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Are traditional culture and Amercanization
related to nutrition and health?
Food safety
Traditional culture
Nutrition
Americanization
Access to health care
Health
Negotiating the U.S. health care system
Legal status
Low income
Environmental hazards
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Are traditional culture and Amercanization
related to nutrition and health?

• I think when they get a taste of our worst
  nutritional nightmares in this country, you know,
  the Big Mac and French fries and what have
  you.we see a lot of obesity in kids and the
  older kids. Its from sugary drinks and candy
  and fast food, because their diet is really a
  very good diet and if they could stick to it but
  again the kids are exposed to television
• Theyre coming from countries where I have to say
  that a lot of these kids come to us pretty
  healthy an end up very unhealthy in our culture.
  Its interesting because theyre coming from a
  country where their main diet would be rice and
  beans and corntheyre coming over here and are
  exposed to sugar and high fat.

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Does traditional culture impact access to and
negotiation of the U.S. health care system?
Food safety
Traditional culture
Nutrition
Americanization
Access to health care
Health
Negotiating the U.S. health care system
Legal status
Low income
Environmental hazards
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Does traditional culture impact access to and
negotiation of the U.S. health care system?

• I mean health and healing are very intimate where
  these people come from and very holistic, and so
  our system puts people off.
• Were very businesslike about our health care.
  You know, boom, boom, boom, youve got ten
  minutes with the doctor. You have to say whats
  wrong with you. You have to answer the questions
  and this is difficult for them, even if they
  understood the language.
• and so they might not comply or they might not
  have the money to comply so theres the
  inability to comply or the unwillingness to
  comply because that man doesnt even like me, so
  could he heal me.

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How about legal status and income as determinants
of access?
Food safety
Traditional culture
Nutrition
Americanization
Access to health care
Health
Negotiating the U.S. health care system
Legal status
Low income
Environmental hazards
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How about legal status and income as determinants
of access?

• No they dont have access to health services
  because of the kind of work that they do they
  dont have any insurance.so theyre going to
  have to pay to take the kids, and sometimes they
  prefer not to go because they dont have the
  money.
• Also, youre dealing with a population that falls
  through the cracks and qualifies for nothing. A
  lot of these families dont have valid social
  security numbers and whatever so they quality for
  none of our government funded programs.
• Migrant Health is open July to October, four
  months out of the year. Then where do the people
  go? They do not have access to health care
  unless they pay for it and, of course, I mean,
  they cant afford it.
• I think primary health care is accessible and
  good.the problem comes for elective surgery,
  which we cannot cover, or if you need a
  specialist.

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What are childrens educational aspirations and
what affects them?
Work and schooling
Family formation
Later life Outcomes
Upbringing
Parents
Aspirations
School performance
Culture
Familism
Age at marriage
Educational
Occupation Industry
Status in adulthood
English ability
Educational attainment
Gender role socialization
Country of origin
Occupational
Age at first birth
Labor force participation
Legal status
Marriage and childbearing
Family structure

Education
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What are childrens educational aspirations and
what affects them?

• They just want to reach their high school diploma
  and then get a job so they dont tend to speak
  about pursuing college. They pretty much stop
  with that. They get their diploma and start
  working.
• A lot of them feel the need to work. I dont
  think that education is stressed as much in the
  families as it is in other cultures.
• I think a lot of them still understand that
  school is important. They may not like school
  but I still think that a majority of them see the
  importance of it, especially since a lot of their
  parents sometimes dont have and education
  themselves.I think they see how staying in
  school can be advantageous in the long run as
  opposed to stopping school and immediately
  working.
• They are becoming more aware of whats required
  to set themselves up for success with whatever
  endeavor they may have following high school

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What are childrens educational aspirations and
what affects them?

• Theres not a lot of emphasis put on education
  from a young age up. The emphasis is on survival
  and the family unit, whereas I believe from the
  Vietnamese culture there is more of an emphasis
  put on education.
• The majority of the parents didnt go that far in
  school, maybe second or third grade. It doesnt
  matter for them. Kids say, I dont want to go
  to school anymore and parents are like, oh,
  okay, if thats want you want to do thats fine.
• Their main concern is family versus the
  individual and obtaining their own personal
  goals. Family is very important. Because
  theyre brought up with the mentality of
  providing for the family, that work takes
  priority for them.
• A lot of times they feel that once they graduate
  from high school they have to go to work because
  they have t o help their parents. Especially if
  they have three or four brothers or sisters, they
  feel that they are obligated to find jobs and
  help the parents.

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What are childrens educational aspirations and
what affects them?

• The parents havent graduated high school and
  here they have their daughter now whos 18 or 19
  whos grown up, graduated high school, something
  they didnt do themselves, and now asking I want
  to leave home and continue to have more
  education. I think its a decision parents are
  unfamiliar with makingits sometimes difficult
  for the father to say yes, I think theyre
  quicker to say yes to their male children.
• Theres not a lot of promoting of girls or even
  the boys for that matter, but especially for the
  girls to finish school, get a good job, go to
  college, have a career. Yeah, thats not
  promoted by our families.

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How do work, educational attainment and family
formation relate?
Work and schooling
Family formation
Later life Outcomes
Parents
Upbringing
Aspirations
School performance
Culture
Familism
Age at marriage
Educational
Occupation Industry
Status in adulthood
English ability
Educational attainment
Gender role socialization
Country of origin
Occupational
Age at first birth
Labor force participation
Legal status
Marriage and childbearing
Family structure

Education
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How do work, educational attainment and family
formation relate?

• We have some of the seniors this year that are
  working as waiters, others in landscaping.
• Kids work typically teenager jobs I dont think
  theyre actually working in the fields or in ag
  processing, its more like working at a pizza
  place or restaurant, that kind of thing.
• Some do ag work but more go into your part-time
  movie theatres and such.
• Some will drop out of school to work full time.
  Not a lot, but it does happen. We do have
  student who stay in school and work part time.

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How do work, educational attainment and family
formation relate?

• The boys can be 16 and the girls even younger and
  they say to the parents were going to get
  married The young men go out and work and the
  wife has to stay home. She gets pregnant right
  away and starts having kids. They follow the
  same patterns as the parents do. This is for
  them something normal.
• They normally tend to have children before
  married and get married because having children
  out of wedlock is frowned upon. They are
  getting married young because theyre having
  babies young.

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Are youth becoming assimilated, Americanized?
Work and schooling
Family formation
Later life Outcomes
Parents
Upbringing
Aspirations
School performance
Culture
Familism
Age at marriage
Educational
Occupation Industry
English ability
Status in adulthood
Educational attainment
Gender role socialization
Country of origin
Occupational
Age at first birth
Labor force participation
Legal status
Marriage and childbearing
Family structure

Education
Americanization
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Are youth becoming assimilated, Americanized?

• Youth resist becoming Americanized. America
  for them is to come and make money and they dont
  want to forget about their culture. They make
  sure that you know by listening to the music or
  eating Mexican foods, so I dont think they want
  to become Americanized, but they came because of
  the money. The parents feel the same way.
• The love being Mexican. They love being Latino.
  They love being Puerto Rican. Whatever they are
  theyre proud of that and they dont hide it. I
  think though they become torn when they start
  finding that they are starting to fit in more
  within the community that theyre living, and not
  just the Hispanic community.
• Then youth get into this world where theyre
  coming in contact with kids who at least talk a
  certain way, dress a certain way, and so on, and
  I think its exceptionally difficult for them.
  Theres anxiety and the feeling of not fitting
  in. Either not fitting in their family or not
  fitting in at school, I mean theyre struggling
  with two worlds.

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Are youth becoming assimilated, Americanized?

• A lot of our kids who dont speak English, yet
  youll see them wearing a lot of American styled
  clothing, a lot of the phrases theyll pick up
  on. Americas phrases, theyll know those before
  they can actually speak in coherent sentences.
  They become Americanized very quickly and I think
  some are very happy and content with that. I
  think there are others who do arrive here and
  never feel comfortable with the idea of becoming
  Americanized. They look forward to going back
  home.
• I think the younger you come here, the more time
  youve spent here leads to becoming more
  Americanized. I think that when youre older you
  already have some values established and you
  already have different ideas established about
  who you are.
• They maintain their cultural roots, but sure, a
  lot of the younger ones want the cell phones and
  the carwhat I would call more American
  materialistic young people. Parents complain
  about it all the time.

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Summary and Conclusions

• Cost, lack of insurance, language and cultural
  differences are main barriers to health care
  utilization.
• Food insecurity is not a widespread problem, is
  more common for adults than kids, and some
  experience hunger.
• Poor nutrition rather than hunger is problematic
  and may be caused partly by Americanization of
  adults and youth.

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Summary and Conclusions

• Low participation in food and other assistance
  programs.
• Families and family roles are highly valued.
• Lack of fit between traditional Mexican and
  American culture, constrained opportunities,
  poverty, lack of English proficiency, and other
  factors contribute to lower educational and
  occupational attainment, especially for girls.

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Summary and Conclusions

• Youth get married and start families at a young
  age.
• Assimilation to American culture is occurring
  even though some parents and children resist it.