Each year, several thousand South Africans come to America on seasonal H-2A visas as temporary agricultural workers
Each year, several thousand South Africans come to America on seasonalvisas as temporary agricultural workers. The visa was first introduced in 1986. Employers must pay for flight tickets, housing and food, and dish out a premium hourly wage. Persistent farm-labour shortages across America have pushed visas up by 211% from 2011 to the 2021 fiscal year.
In 2021 the Mississippi Centre for Justice, a non-profit law firm, brought the first lawsuit on behalf of six black workers, including Mr Johnson. Although the visa programme requires locals to get a rise if the calculatedwage is higher than local salaries, they alleged they never received a pay bump, claiming that in 2020 they made $7.25 for every $11.83 the South Africans received.
Because the South Africans were new to the equipment, climate and the farming techniques of the American South, they required training. And this responsibility fell on the shoulders of the black workers, who say they realised too late that they were teaching their replacements. According to a Department of Labour audit of the farm’s operations from 2020 to 2021, four local workers lost out on shifts when new recruits arrived.
According to several white farm-owners in the region, hiring from abroad is a necessity. Asking to speak anonymously because they feared a fine, or being perceived as racist, many farm-owners say the local folks are lazy, doing only the minimum work and waiting to receive handouts. By contrast, one Clarksdale farm manager says of the South Africans, “if I say jump, they say how high?” This attitude, he adds, is worth paying more for.
The language that some of the owners use, however, makes it difficult to know whether what’s happening is just the laws of supply and demand in operation, or evidence of straightforward racism. Or, maybe, it is both. One Robbinsonville-based farmer, who hires about 15 South African workers every year, is not shy to say that rural black Mississippians have “babies like damn rabbits” and “live on food stamps”.
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