Farmworkers, including Latine youth, represent a structurally vulnerable population because, due to macro-level social processes, they embody a social location in which exploitation, discrimination, and negative health outcomes are common. ^18,19 Researchers have highlighted the extreme negative outcomes that become likely for marginalized social groups such as farmworkers during acute emergency events (e.g., wildfires, pandemics). ^10,20 The disastrous outcomes that unfold during acute emergency events such as the COVID-19 pandemic can thus be interpreted as the expected result of processes of slow violence, in which marginalized groups are ignored and disenfranchised over long temporal frames. ^20,21 In the case of Latine youth, their structurally vulnerable experience of the pandemic corresponds to the precarious work of parents, who often work in essential jobs such as meatpacking or agriculture. ²² However, their vulnerability can also be traced back to other historical structural factors, such as agricultural child labor laws dating back to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which excluded agriculture from most worker protections in an attempt to maintain the disenfranchisement of Black sharecroppers. ^16,23 Approaching a century later, the demographics of the agricultural labor force has experienced shifts. However, the reliance on marginalized labor pools, including undocumented Latine immigrants, guest workers, and Latine youth, has remained constant. ^16,24,25

Latine youth farmworkers experience high rates of injury, ^26,27 and educational disparities. ²⁸ The majority of these youth are US citizens, but they may be members of mixed-status families, in which at least one family member is undocumented. ^9,29 Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, youth farmworkers confronted multi-faceted challenges including poverty, mixed family documentation status, lowered healthcare access, language barriers, migration, and environmental health threats (e.g., exposure to pesticides). ^30–32 The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing adversities and created new challenges for farmworkers. ^10,12 However, limited information is available to understand the characteristics, experiences, and conditions of farm work for Latine youth farmworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the pandemic-era work experiences of Latine youth farmworkers is critical for addressing existing structural inequities (e.g., limited opportunities for family economic advancement, educational and healthcare barriers, lax agricultural health and safety regulatory frameworks) that were worsened by the pandemic and ultimately threaten these youths’ long-term health and development.

The primary goal of this study is to describe and contextualize Latine youth farmworkers’ experiences of work and work safety during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March 2020 through March 2022) by drawing from interviews with education, health, and non-profit advocacy service providers (n=10) and Latine youth farmworkers (n=24).

We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach involving both professional and youth advisory boards. An existing professional advisory board from a previous study, ³³ comprised of 6 active members representing organizations that interface with farmworkers, provided feedback on important topics to explore in this research. An existing youth advisory board from the non-profit Student Action with Farmworkers, comprised of 10 rural Latine high school students from farmworker families, ³⁴ participated in the development, implementation, and preliminary analyses of the study. Two paid youth co-investigators took a leadership role in the study by co-developing study materials and activities for the full youth advisory board. Given the limited information on how Latine youth farmworkers were experiencing the pandemic, we used a two-phase approach to explore and describe their experiences. In phase one, we conducted 10 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with individuals who provide services (e.g., education, health, advocacy) for farmworker families. The purpose of these interviews was to elicit service provider perspectives on how Latine youth farmworkers were experiencing the pandemic and to inform interview guide development for the youth interviews. In phase two, we used participatory methods (e.g., free listing games, focus groups) with youth advisors to further refine, develop, and test the youth interview topics. Next, we recruited 24 Latine farmworker youth who each participated in a semi-structured, in-depth interview.

Taking into account the potential biases of researchers, we describe our own positions in relation to the research process as a way to increase transparency and acknowledge the team nature of this study. ³⁵ We are a team of multi-disciplinary researchers from academic and non-academic institutions with decades of experience conducting community-based research with and providing service to farmworkers and immigrant communities. The lead author of this study has sustained engagement with Latine communities, specifically with rural Latine youth, through research partnerships for over a decade. His own identity as an early-career, White, US-born male scholar trained in critical theories has impacted his opportunities and approach to research. Consciously and unconsciously, his position as an “outsider” of the rural Latine community has shaped interactions with research participants. As a reflexivity process and acknowledgement of biases throughout this study, he embedded practices of critical reflection and cultural humility ³⁶ throughout the research process including taking detailed field note reflections, memoing, bracketing, and maintaining an ongoing engagement with community partners. The co-authors of this manuscript include members of the lead author’s dissertation committee, long-term collaborators, and research assistants. Throughout the project and analysis, the team had formal and informal conversations to reflect on their relationship to the research and analysis and interpretation of findings.

North Carolina (NC) is a leading state in US agriculture and agribusiness, with $103.2 billion contributed to the gross state product by food, fiber, and forestry industries. ³⁷ NC is ranked the number 1 producer of tobacco, sweet potatoes, and poultry and egg receipts in the US. ³⁸ In the context of workplace protections during the pandemic, an Executive Order to protect agricultural workers from COVID-19 was withdrawn after pushback from state officials. ³⁹ Several years after the start of the pandemic, airborne infectious disease rules for agricultural operators and migrant housing operators, resulting from petitions from community organizations, were withdrawn in March 2024, directly after the public comment window. ⁴⁰

At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, NC schools closed and remained closed for the remainder of the academic year. Throughout the pandemic, school districts had some flexibility to choose modality of educational delivery. Most schools used a fully online or hybrid (a mix of in-person and online) arrangement for the 2020–2021 academic year. The start of the 2021–2022 school year marked a return to mostly in-person schooling.

In the current study, service providers represented a geographically expansive statewide network. Youth included in this study resided in 4 rural NC counties, concentrated in eastern NC, with a few participants located in western NC. Youth working in agriculture both seasonally or migrating for work were included in the sample. They had worked in a variety of agricultural tasks such as picking or packing beans, berries, peas, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes, topping tobacco, and animal care.

We assigned a Participant Identification (PID) number to each participant and a professional transcription company transcribed verbatim the audio-recordings of interviews. Interview transcripts were verified against the audio corrected to produce a final transcript. Finalized transcripts were then uploaded into ATLAS.ti 23, for analysis and coding. An analysis diary containing a compilation of field notes, reflections, thematic maps, and memos was kept throughout the analysis process. For preliminary analysis, the lead author held a workshop with the youth advisory board that included an orientation to qualitative research and a participatory collaborative “research poetics” process. ⁴¹ This process involved the youth re-organizing the words from brief transcript excerpts to form a “research poem.” This workshop was used to gain feedback from youth advisors, who share experiential similarity with the youth research participants, on potential themes and topics to explore during subsequent analyses.

Following preliminary analyses, we used a Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) ⁴² approach to simultaneously analyze the service provider and youth interview transcripts. As a flexible approach that acknowledges the co-constructive nature of research, RTA facilitates a systematic process for identifying and describing shared experiences across participants. ⁴² We followed the six interconnected steps of RTA, including familiarization, generating initial codes, generating initial themes, reviewing potential themes, refining, defining, and naming themes, and writing up. ⁴² To stay close to the participants words, given the study’s descriptive design, we primarily focused on semantic content. However, our analysis also involved our own interpretation and observations beyond the participants’ words. ⁴² Efforts to enhance the trustworthiness of this research ^43–45 included the CBPR approach that included youth advisors as co-investigators, reflexivity processes (e.g., analysis diary, bracketing, critical reflections), detailed field notes, the inclusion of multiple perspectives (e.g., service providers and youth farmworkers), and negative case analysis. ⁴⁶ All participants have been randomly assigned a pseudonym to protect confidentiality.

As schools closed and shifted to online instruction in late Spring 2020, many youth described balancing work and school. Jose, a 17-year-old boy from a migrant family, described working in farm work for over a decade prior to the pandemic:

When describing the onset of the pandemic, he recalled,

While Jose indicated that he found a way to manage the dual responsibilities of school and work, others had more difficulties. Daniel, an education service provider, explained,

Many youth expressed frustration with online learning and some felt that working was a better use of their time. Maria, a service provider in a health field, described her firsthand observation of this,

Most youth described technical difficulties as a central aspect of their frustration with online schooling. Carlos, an 11-year-old boy, stated, “It was pretty difficult, ‘cause we couldn’t learn anything. And peoples’ internet was probably bad.” Victoria, a 10-year-old girl said, “Our Wi-Fi didn’t really work good, but we just had to deal with it.”

For some, these frustrations led to increased work hours. Luis, a 16-year-old boy, said he “definitely worked more during COVID than anytime.” In addition to contributing to family financial needs, he went on to explain, “I preferred going to work than staying home doing my schoolwork…. I found working more entertaining.” In contrast, Paula, a 13-year-old girl, described challenges, “It was really hard, ‘cause I had to wake up really early in the morning to go to work and then I would try to finish fast so I can do my school work…and not miss any assignments.”

These narratives suggest a relationship between rural school districts’ sluggish adaptation to virtual schooling, coupled with fragile rural internet infrastructure, and increased farm work among Latine youth.

While disenchantment with virtual schooling played a role in some youth deciding to work, a salient reason for nearly all participants was the financial need of their families. Marco, a non-profit service provider, explained,

This sentiment was echoed in the narratives of youth across ages and gender as many described scenarios in which their parents lost income or jobs during the pandemic, so they wanted to contribute to the family. Jessica, a 13-year-old girl explained,

Likewise, Omar, a 15-year-old boy remarked,

Amid precarious financial situations, some participants indicated a willingness to accept whatever work was available. Paula, a 13-year-old girl recalled, “We would just work for anybody, honestly.” Jose, a 17-year-old boy, expressed some frustration with the wages despite the effort, yet felt that there was nothing that could be done to change it, “It always stays the same price. That’s like something we just got used to….We always get paid the same amount for our work. Like we could work our butts off.” In contrast, in one exchange, Lupe, a 16-year-old girl, described her family actually declining to be paid more out of a perceived sense of fairness.

One non-profit service provider, Marco, shared a nuanced reflection based on his interactions with farmworker families throughout the pandemic:

Marcos’s interwoven narrative of his perceptions of families’ perspectives on their children working and his acknowledgement of conditions seen by many as child labor adds a level of complexity to these findings. Yet, it simultaneously demonstrates the normalization and acceptance of precarious work among financially insecure families amidst structurally vulnerable conditions.

Service providers and youth reflected on the degree to which employers and supervisors incorporated COVID-19 safety protocols in agricultural workplaces. For the most part, participants’ narratives indicated lack of emphasis on workplace safety. Rosa, a non-profit service provider, simply said, “I don’t think [safety protocols] were fully implemented.” This sentiment mirrored what Daniel, an education service provider, said, “I don’t think growers really took…any concrete proactive steps to protect workers.” Another non-profit service provider, Marco, commented on a disconnect between official safety guidance at the time and the reality of what was happening to farmworkers in the fields:

However, one service provider in the health sector (Maria) observed that some employers did implement safety protocols,

Many youth described limited, if any, attention to COVID-19 safety protocols from the growers and supervisors. Jessica, a 13-year-old girl, described how the grower left safety practices up to the workers, and indicated that the grower’s primary concern, as he explicitly stated, was getting the job done:

Christopher, a 12-year-old boy working in tomatoes, described the work safety environment in a similar way, “It was more like, ‘We got to get this picked’….They were cautious about it but, like, didn’t offer us anything or help. They just continued on with their own business.” Sofia, another 12-year-old, emphasized, “Oh, they wouldn’t tell you to wear masks. Like they didn’t like really care…They just cared about the work.”

Youth perceptions that bosses cared more about the quality and quantity of work than workers’ safety came through in other narratives as well. A few said their bosses would come “Just to check how we were doing it and stuff and if we’re doing it correctly” (Luz, 14-year-old girl) or “just checking, the basics, it wasn’t much, but it was that we were doing something (Lucas, 17-year-old boy). On the other hand, some described minimal safety instructions such as “they told us to wear a mask and for safety basically that stuff….that’s all they said” (Selena, 11 year old girl) or “he would sometimes tell us to get some hand sanitizer to be safe” (Ana, 14 year old girl). Juan, a 17-year-old boy, recalled the safety information provided while he was working at a blueberry packing facility, “Ah, well yeah they gave us like…a little paper that just told you like what to be cautious of and what to be aware of with the whole pandemic thing.”

Others observed less of a presence of their bosses during the pandemic. Selena, an 11-year-old girl said that the bosses “came less” during that time. Christopher, a 12-year-old, speculated, “The bosses just stayed at home, I think…the main boss, we didn’t really see him during those times of the pandemic.” In some cases, the absence of the bosses affected the provision of basic supplies, “I mean, he would come and check on us, before the pandemic started, and now…he didn’t. Like, he would give us, like, water, but now we had to get our own supplies” (Carlos, 11-year-old boy).

The results of this study should be interpreted with an attention to its strengths and weaknesses. Using a CBPR approach, we recruited a difficult-to-find population of youth to learn about their experiences during the pandemic. While the inclusion of service providers and youth farmworkers allowed for multiple perspectives on the same phenomenon, these results may not reflect the experiences of Latine youth farmworkers in other areas of NC or in other states. We asked youth to discuss their experiences over the last 2 years, so there is a potential for recall bias. Additionally, youth who would have been aged 16 or 17 at the beginning of the pandemic (in 2020) did not meet the study’s 2022 inclusion criteria of presently aged 10–17. The retrospective perspective of older youth, especially regarding work hours, schooling, and childcare responsibilities, were likely different from the younger sample recruited for this study. Evidence from service providers suggests age-related differences, but older youth who could have elaborated on their experiences were not included in the study. Despite the limitations, this study is one of the few to explore the experiences of Latine youth farmworkers during the pandemic by drawing from interviews with service providers and youth in their own voices.

Addressing the economic need of farmworker families, a structurally vulnerable population, is imperative for reducing hazardous work exposures among children and youth. The present study adds to research prior to the pandemic demonstrating that financial precarity is a primary driver of youths’ involvement in dangerous agricultural work. ⁵³ At the same time, the results suggest the presence of strong ties within the family, which indicate a level of resilience to the negative effects of the pandemic. Efforts to bolster the resilience of rural farmworker families through culturally appropriate tailored approaches would add to existing strengths and help prepare for future adversities. Given the complex interplay between work and school for Latine youth farmworkers, addressing digital/technological disparities and enhancing digital literacy can help prepare for future public health disasters by ensuring a more equitable shift to online school modality, should it be necessitated.

Current child labor laws in agriculture date back to 1938 and allow children under 12 years old to be hired for farm work. Updating these laws to be appropriate for the modern agricultural industry is imperative to ensure protections for these youth. However, such updates should deeply consider the potential for unintended negative economic effects that could result from abrupt changes, as many families rely on the income contributions from working youth. Wages in agricultural labor have remained stagnant for decades. Increasing economic justice by providing a fair wage and job benefits within agricultural labor could help reduce the need for youth and children to work. Providing safer work alternatives, job training programs, or supplementary educational activities could help reduce hazardous work exposures among youth while simultaneously building skills for the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role of “essential workers” in the daily functioning of society. The results from this study incorporating the perspective of service providers and the firsthand experiences of youth farmworkers suggest that workers in some essential sectors, such as agriculture, were not afforded even basic workplace protections. Workplace protections that account for new emerging threats (e.g., infectious diseases such as COVID-19) are imperative. Yet, these protections may prove ineffective without meaningful enforcement. Efforts to educate workers about basic workers’ rights should incorporate strategies to involve and target youth. Empowering youth to have a voice in their workplace could be a powerful mechanism for ensuring safer workplaces. The finding from this study that workers organized their own safety protocols shows promise for organizing around other workplace issues.

This CBPR study drew from the narratives of service providers and Latine youth farmworkers to understand and describe their perspectives on work and work safety during the first 2 years of the pandemic. The findings represent a unique opportunity to understand and address the overlapping structural factors shaping the longer-term health and development of a vulnerable population that is often ignored by policymakers and the public. The labor of farmworkers, including youth as young as 10-years-old, protected against the collapse of the US food system during the pandemic, yet basic workplace protections were sorely lacking. Importantly, the findings indicate an urgent need for policy solutions focused on structural determinants of health (e.g., political, economic, educational, and social) shaping the distribution of resources and power for vulnerable populations. Service providers and youth described family financial needs and disenchantment with online schooling as salient motivations for increased work during the pandemic. Youth acknowledged the regular hazards of agricultural work (e.g., strenuous work in extreme heat) in addition to the emergent threats of COVID-19, yet many felt they had few other options. Amid minimal employer-provided safety practices, youth described some adult workers organizing their own safety protocols. We found nuanced results in youths’ perspectives of their supervisors’ emphasis on safety, with most feeling that productivity was prioritized over safety, while some feeling that their supervisors were generous for providing water or breaks. Future research and programming should monitor and intervene upon the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on the work and educational patterns of Latine youth farmworkers and other vulnerable rural populations. All research, policy, and practice should incorporate the affected communities throughout the process.