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| Illinois' Farmworkers | ||||
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Illinois plays a key role in the Midwest Migrant Stream of farmworkers which remains the largest of the three major migrant streams.
Until recent years, as many as
32,000 migrant and seasonal
farmworkers sought agricultural employment annually in Illinois.
It's now estimated that 20,800 farmworkers will seek agricultural jobs
in the State in the upcoming year. Various transformations in the
agricultural industry have affected the farm labor market. The State's farmworkers migrate throughout the nation from Texas to Illinois to other Midwest states, from Illinois to Florida/East Coast to Texas, or from the West/Northwest Coast to Illinois to Texas. Generally, migrant seasonal farmworkers return to the same worksite year after year with several generations of the same family working the same company fields and following the same migrant path to Illinois. Seasonal farmworkers reside year round in Illinois but are underemployed - working only during the agricultural season. There are an estimated 3,223
vegetable,
fruit, sod and dairy farms, orchards and nurseries in Illinois
which
employ farmworkers seasonally. IMC primarily serves farmworkers in
these types
of agricultural work: planting, harvesting, hoeing, detassling,
weeding,
sowing, cultivating, bunching, picking, thinning, packing, loading. Illinois'
agricultural
crops include apples, peaches, cabbage, cantaloupes, bell peppers,
pumpkins,
corn, tomatoes, soybeans, asparagus, leaf lettuce, onions, beans,
spinach,
squash, berries, chives, radishes and much more.
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IMC Home  locations IL
farmworkers services WIA
partner contacts |
Illinois
Migrant
Council (IMC)
info@illinoismigrant.org
Last revised:
January 24, 2009
