Protecting Farmworkers From Child Labor
Children as young as 12 can legally work as farmworkers. Migrant Legal Aid has found children as young as 4 years old working in the blueberry fields in Michigan. The history of child labor in Michigan is deep, as seen in the ABC News exposé The Blueberry Children.
The transitory nature of migrant work is hard on children. Changing locations can disrupt their education; child farmworkers often attend three to five different schools per year as they migrate from farm to farm. It is difficult for these children to complete their education. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2017-18 National Agricultural Workers Survey, migrant farmworkers born outside the U.S. receive only up to a seventh-grade education on average, and less than one in five complete 12 years of school.
We help protect children’s futures by addressing child labor violations, discrimination, and other issues.
