Originally printed in . . .

Assisting Southeast Asian Refugee Farmers

Steve Sutter and Pedro Ilic

In 1991, the Agricultural Personnel Management Program funded a project to assist Southeast Asian refugee farmers in understanding compensation regulations and developing personnel record and accounting systems. In effect, this grant was tagged onto a UC Small Farms Program project delivering pesticide safety and technical advice to refugee farmers.

Nearly 55,000 Southeast Asian refugees live in Fresno County, and this population is expected to increase by 1,500 new immigrants in 1992. The Fresno Southeast Asian community comprises about 60 percent Hmong, 21 percent Laotian, 11 percent Cambodian, 5 percent Vietnamese, and 3 percent Chinese and other nationalities.

About 750 refugees are engaged in farming. Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, bittermelon, and sugar peas probably account for about one-half of the acres farmed by refugees. Other crops commonly produced are green beans, opo, Chinese long bean, luffa, eggplant, mokua, and squash.

Inta Phakhonekham, a Laotian refugee and former teacher, was hired as a field survey worker for 8 weeks. A total of 269 Southeast Asian refugee farmers were contacted at 128 field locations. Farmers were advised of coming meetings and the availability of business information from the UC Cooperative Extension Fresno office.

Eight of the farmers were female, and 745 families were working at these sites. The sample families were 63 percent Hmong, 32 percent Lao, 3 percent Chinese, and 2 percent other Asian nationalities. All farmers gave their home address and telephone and were placed on Fresno's Southeast Asian refugee farmer mailing list.

From backyard beginnings, some of these refugee farmers now operate consequential farms. In the sample, 100 farmers (37 percent) operated 5 acres or more, and 29 (11 percent) had plots ranging from 11 to 50 acres.

Most of the farmers (80 percent) work a land parcel as part of a group of families, generally in clusters of two to seven families. Size of the farming site was moderately correlated with the number of families.

Communication barriers, particularly reading and writing limitations of most of these farmers, create a special challenge in delivering agronomic, business, and personnel management information to them. Many refugee farmers cannot read or write any language.

Two refugee farmer meetings were conducted with interpreters to instruct in farm business and payroll accounting, taxes, employment-related regulations, pesticide safety, and production techniques. Internal Revenue Service and state tax agency representatives joined us in the schooling.

A total of 26 farmers attended the free half-day sessions. Special Hmong and Lao radio broadcasts, Mr. Phakhonekham's field contacts, and a translated meeting announcement sent to 440 persons on the refugee farmer mailing list were the main means of publicity. None of the attendees indicated that they learned of the meetings through the newsletter.

It was interesting that all three female attendees took meeting notes furiously. Although pencils and paper were offered to all, only one male attendee was observed taking notes. Meetings were started with "warm-up" questions. Written before/after knowledge tests were omitted intentionally.

Attendees asked a moderate number of questions. Two farmers requested an analysis of an 18-page (English) lease agreement. Several sought information on minimum wage rules, workers' compensation, local agricultural burning rules, and individual help in applying for business tax identification numbers. No questions were raised on records and tax filing. This activity is managed mostly by paid tax preparers. Two farmers spoke of high-priced preparation services.

This project helped advance our contacts with representatives of refugee and general social service agencies, and the Internal Revenue Service. We continue to respond to information requests from leaders in the refugee community and to the visible flow of refugee farmers into the Fresno County UCCE office. A recent project spin-off was an invitation to meet with the IRS Regional Director and community agencies regarding the problem of refugee and other taxpayers filing returns in years they are not required to do so.

At an awards banquet on November 13, 1991, the University of California Cooperative Extension was one of 44 area employers presented an appreciation award from the Central California Forum on Refugee Affairs for "special efforts in hiring refugees."

 

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