Poverty Amid Prosperity

Book excerpt: This book examines the socioeconomic links among farm employment, immigration, and welfare use not only within California's Central Valley, but also along the state's Central Coast and in its southern regions. Using U.S. Census data and information collected from extensive community-level site visits, the authors find that immigration, largely from rural Mexico, is changing the face of rural California, increasing levels of population, poverty, and public service demands. The authors caution that upward mobility among these immigrant workers may be limited and that recent legislative changes are reducing the public resources available to help newcomers adjust, just as the number of immigrants is increasing.