Immigration, Agricultural Labor, and Food Production

Farm labor shortages have become a salient feature of agricultural production in the U.S. Immigrant workers, particularly immigrants from Mexico, play an important role in the agricultural labor force. However, over the past twenty years, there has been a marked decline in new immigrant arrivals from Mexico, suggesting a link between falling Mexican immigration and agricultural labor shortages. Economists Ashish Shenoy and Julián Arteaga will examine the impacts of changes in immigrant labor supply on wages, farm production, and domestic food prices. They will analyze data from multiple sources for their study, including survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, administrative records from the Mexican Government, and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.