By Ciara Dusek, Delta College Student Submission
John Dusek, a local agricultural business owner, sat down with me on Feb. 20, 2025, to share his firsthand experiences in a workforce few pursue. He reflected on his past as a student of agriculture where he often worked with migrant crews.
A recent 2024 survey from The Pew Research Center identifying key trends found over half of all U.S. registered voters find immigrants, both illegal and legal, take jobs most U.S. citizens don’t want. As Dusek was often paired in migrant crews, did he have to put up a fight to get his job?
“A lot of times I was the only white American working on a crew, because I was the only one who applied. Typically I worked with Hispanic people and people from the eastern part of the world.” Dusek said.
He’s worked at several industrial greenhouse production sites where fieldwork, intense weather and heavy labor are part of a normal workday.
“In the industry you have to offer the job to American citizens first, it has to be proved before the job can be given to migrant workers. Every time we’ve had zero applications from Americans.” Dusek shares.
“We filled the jobs with migrant workers because they were the only ones that applied. The non migrant workers were always in management, while these guys were in the field doing the manual labor.” Dusek says.
“I worked in the field for the majority of my time as an intern student, and these people are very honest, hard working people,” Dusek says. “They took me in, and, although we had a language barrier, we figured out how to get the job done.”
While describing his experiences, Dusek made sure to note a Polish immigrant he worked with who was passionate about agriculture. Dusek said the man was saving up to bring his family to America, and he didn’t hesitate to take care of Dusek during their time at that facility.
Dusek then moves on to talk about his experiences with migrant workers at his own business.
“My partner and I had often employed migrant workers in the spring during production. These workers come in circuits, working in the north for the spring and the south for winter. Many times, when we’d have migrant workers, they’d be the only ones to apply.” Dusek admits.
Dusek continues to explain the troubles agricultural businesses often run into when it comes to the workforce.
“Anytime there’s turmoil in immigration it causes a shake up…we are under seasonal constraints. We only have eight to ten weeks to make our living and if suddenly in week five we have no crew, then we can’t find people, we can’t find anyone else.” Dusek says.
Dusek then discusses the current situation occurring with migrants in the American workforce.
“What’s going on right now isn’t just the result of one or two administrations not handling the immigration situation well, it’s been happening my entire career.”
He ended the conversation with a warning.
“To try and end everything right now is going to have profound impacts on agriculture,” Dusek says. “We’re going to have a crisis this year.”
