Table 4_Fields of inequity: initial insights into structural disparities among migrant farmworkers in Maryland.docx

In addition to generating summary statistics, we examined differences in wages and housing type by farmworker demographics, work authorization status and work tasks.</p>Results<p>MSFWs held a variety of work authorization statuses (77.8% H-2A and 15% EAD under TPS), reported Spanish (84.3%) and Haitian Creole (15.7%) as primary languages, and 47% reported long tenure in agricultural work. Participants lived in various overcrowded housing types including detached/single family homes, motels, barrack/labor camps and mobile homes.

Hypertension was the most common chronic health condition reported by participants but not everyone had access to needed medications. We found disparities in wages by gender, education, and nationality (e.g., male, H-2A and Mexican workers were significantly more likely to earn ≥$15/h.).</p>Conclusion<p>Given the lack of systematically collected data on Maryland’s present-day MSFWs, our data provide critical insights for local farmworker advocacy, social service and health care organizations, and governmental agencies responsible for the health and wellbeing of MSFWs.

Impoverished working and living conditions of MSFWs are constant features, structured by design of the United States agriculture labor system. To find lasting solutions, we can no longer treat these features as independent factors. We must apply a systems lens to examine how the structures of law, policy, practices and norms give rise to the lived experiences of MSFWs.

Our baseline results provide grounding into the current lived experiences of MSFWs in Maryland and aspects of labor, immigration, agriculture and public health systems that we will interrogate further through community-based system dynamics and group model building workshops co-facilitated with CATA.</p>