Was the bracero program an exploration or an opportunity for mexican laborers?

The bracero program grew out of a series of bi-lateral agreements between Mexico and the

United States that allowed millions of Mexican men to come to the United States to work on,

short-term, primarily agricultural labor contracts. From 1942 to 1964, 4.6 million contracts were

signed, with many individuals returning several times on different contracts, making it the

largest U.S. contract labor program. An examination of the images, stories, documents and

artifacts of the bracero program contributes to our understanding of the lives of migrant

workers in Mexico and the United States, as well as our knowledge of, immigration, citizenship,

nationalism, agriculture, labor practices, race relations, gender, sexuality, the family, visual

culture, and the Cold War era.  

The bracero program was controversial in its time. Mexican nationals, desperate for work, were

willing to take arduous jobs at wages scorned by most Americans. Farm workers already living

in the United States worried that braceros would compete for jobs and lower wages. In theory,

the bracero program had safeguards to protect both Mexican and domestic workers for

example, guaranteed payment of at least the prevailing area wage received by native workers;

employment for three-fourths of the contract period; adequate, sanitary, and free housing;

decent meals at reasonable prices; occupational insurance at employer's expense; and free

transportation back to Mexico at the end of the contract. Employers were supposed to hire

braceros only in areas of certified domestic labor shortage, and were not to use them as

strikebreakers. In practice, they ignored many of these rules and Mexican and native workers

suffered while growers benefited from plentiful, cheap, labor. Between the 1940s and mid

1950s, farm wages dropped sharply as a percentage of manufacturing wages, a result in part of

the use of braceros and undocumented laborers who lacked full rights in American society.

The U.S. turned to Mexico as a supplier  of labour.Mexico doubted that a legitimate labor scarcity

existed and viewed the Bracero program as a way

for the U.S. to obtain cheap labor.

Mexican officials were concerned about the

deportation and repatriation of Mexicans which

occurred in the 1930’s and were anxious to

prevent another such episode.

Mexico did not want to permit their workers to be

sent to discrimination prone states in the U.S.

Mexico felt that there might be a danger to

Mexico's economic development if many

thousands of their workers left for the U.S

Step-by-step explanation:

1/5

step-by-step explanation:

the dice has 6 sides and there is only one 5 in a dice.