Today 90 percent of California’s farmworkers hail from Mexico and half of that population lack documents for legal residence, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey.

Phil Martin says that “I’ve always seen the ‘California Dream’ as coming to the state and finding more opportunity than you had where you came from.” He argues that California still offers lots of opportunities to move up the socioeconomic ladder. He also explains that the flow of migrants across the border has slowed dramatically in recent years,  due to changes in U.S. immigration policy, border security, and an improving economy in Mexico. 

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