Applied Anthropology and Migrant Cultures in Us

Applied Anthropology and Migrant Cultures in Us

Culture is an aspect of life through which individuals can provide themselves with a sense of identity as well as belonging. Various books by different authors shed light on the various societal issues and the day to day occurrences that affect us and shape the society into the way that it is today. Depending on the cultural orientations of an individual in the organization, various attributions are made concerning the individual in question. For instance, in American society, Hispanic culturally oriented individuals have been linked with manual labour as well as other blue-collar jobs in the community. This is the same plight that has been addressed in the book, “Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies” where a participant-observer managed to identify issues such as, economic disparities, political hierarchies as well as the access to quality and affordable healthcare by immigrants (Holmes, 2013). These issues were identified to be rampant in the western U.S.

However, using cultural anthropology as well as other new developments in our society today, it is possible to come up with frameworks that could help in the improvement of the living conditions that migrant farmworkers are subjected to today.  The first aspect of culture that our societies adopted and has been operating along with since time in history is the low wage associated with physical and manual labor. People working in this sector receive lesser payments which are attributed to the less technical requirements to execute these tasks. For farmworkers initially, most of the farm activities were operated in a manual approach. However, today, as farm mechanization sets in and the technicality needed to keep the farms running increases, so should considerations be made to ensure that the workers who make these operations possible are well paid.

A proper wage for farm workers is expected to have a significant impact on the living conditions of those involved in these farming activities as well as their families.  This is because, through the improved living conditions for this group as well as the access to better social services such as healthcare and education, so is the quality of services that they deliver on the farm expected to increase. As a result, this is expected to have a chain reaction effect in which better and improved farm services are provided, thus increasing the overall productivity. This has been proven through applied cultural anthropology that, productivity can be improved through the improvement of the production factors. As a result, this remains one approach that could benefit both the farmworkers as well as the employers.

In a static society where the factors have not changed since the writing of the book, there are certain aspects of modern national culture that could primarily affect the migrant farmworkers is the concept of social inclusivity. Although diversification in the workplace is an issue that social welfare groups are working round the clock to ensure that our workspaces become more accommodating, migrant farmworkers are yet to reach a position to enjoy such benefits. In today’s modern culture, the issue of segregation, as well as the questionable treatment of immigrant manual, labourers is still prevalent. The migrant farmworkers have therefore been subjected to questionable treatment due to their low levels of skill as well as educational qualifications.

From a cultural anthropology point of view, it is possible to identify that there is the necessity to develop a more inclusive and mutual coexistence aspect among the members of a given society irrespective of the cultural orientations of an individual (Castañeda, 2010).

References

Holmes, S. (2013). Fresh fruit, broken bodies: Migrant farmworkers in the United States (Vol. 27). Univ of California Press.

Castañeda, H. (2010). I’m/migration and health: conceptual, methodological, and theoretical propositions for applied anthropology. Napa Bulletin, 34(1), 6-27.