“We Left the Crop There Lying in the Field”: Agricultural Worker Experiences with the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Rural US-Mexico Border Region

Details

• Personal Author:
  Flores D ; Flores L ; Keeney AJ ; Quandt A ; Villaseñor M
• Description:
  California agricultural workers are predominately Latino/a, are medically underserved, and reside in larger households, placing them at elevated COVID-19 risk at work and at home. While some research has examined COVID-19 among agricultural workers in the interior of the United States, little research exists on experiences of COVID-19 along the US-Mexico border. Grounded in resilience thinking, this study aims to understand how agricultural workers navigated their heightened risk to COVID-19 at work and at home, and made use of available resources in the context of a bi-national community. Our study utilized qualitative interviews with 12 agricultural workers to understanding the COVID-19 experiences of resident and daily migrant agricultural workers in Imperial County, California, located along the US-Mexico border. Findings suggest that agricultural workers faced significant impacts and risks at work (work stoppages, stress about bringing COVID-19 home to family) and at home (contracting COVID-19, loss of friends and family, and mental health challenges). Agricultural workers and their employers often implemented COVID-19 precautions such as social distancing measures, personal protective equipment, hand washing and hand sanitizers, and isolation. Many agricultural workers did access testing resources on either side of the US-Mexico border and worked with US-based Spanish-speaking community-based organizations to register for vaccine appointments. To better support agricultural workers and their employers in the future, we recommend the following: 1. Prioritize agricultural workplace conditions to increase agricultural worker physical and mental health, 2. Extend public health services into agricultural work sites of transit and the workplace, and 3. Lastly, trusted Spanish-speaking community-based organizations can play a critical role in public health outreach. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Communicable Diseases Community Health Services Farmers Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural Workers Author Keywords: Agricultural Workers Community Health COVID-19 Farm Workers Hispanic/Latino Mental Health Personal Protective Equipment PPE Public Health Qualitative Inquiry Qualitative Methods Resilience US-Mexico

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• ISSN:
  0743-0167
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  95
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067819
• Citation:
  J Rural Stud 2022 Oct; 95:533-543
• Contact Point Address:
  Amy Quandt, Department of Geography, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182-4119, USA
• Email:
  aquandt@sdsu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of California - Davis
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Rural Studies
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3c8f84919a9bf76b2a96b2775e59e8926dbd2c6c23e613d98b3b63042713731abbf38e36683eae4bd6fcd7ce0b39d33cab984a8af8f570bbe5ef4288f5833b72
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230074/cdc_230074_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 547.96 KB ]