California farms struggle to hold onto immigrant labor

Jose Flores is an undocumented immigrant who has been working as a field hand on California farms for 17 years. But his boss, a strawberry farmer, just gave Flores control of his own plot of land. What did the farmer ask return? Simply that Flores stick around. Farms in California are experiencing a severe labor shortage that’s driving field hand wages to their highest levels in history. It has forced farmers to compete fiercely for skilled workers, offering benefits like health insurance, childcare, paid time-off, or, in Flores’ case, a piece of land. The number of fieldworkers in California has shrunk nearly 40 percent since 2002. Economists and other experts say that’s the result of tightened immigration policies and an improved Mexican economy. People are leaving California because there are more opportunities in Mexico, which has a better social safety net. In addition, making it to the U.S. is harder than before.