Developing Occupational and Family Resilience among US Migrant Farmworkers

Drawing on key themes emerging from an earlier empirical interview study with working mothers who were U.S. migrant farm workers, this paper presents a current literature review identifying migrant workers’ work and family policy opportunities and challenges with future research directions. The themes are: acculturative stress, occupational and family resilience, and employer power and control. We discuss how these themes reflect opportunities, demands and constraints related to the unique work and family experiences of migrant workers. We show that migrant workers are often quite resilient, despite difficult working conditions that may result in health problems, limited family time, disruptions in children’s education, separation from family, and less than satisfactory housing options. Future research is needed on how to develop resources to countervail acculturative stress, and develop occupational and family resilience. Such an approach will shift research and policy away from an individual deficit and toward a systems based resource policy perspective on migrant labor workers and families.