The Migrant Experience

The Migrant Experience

Reading Questions

Read the article about the lives of migrant workers in the 1930s and answer the following questions.
For each question, also indicate in which paragraph the answer will be found.

1.  What caused farmers to lose their farms in the 1930s? (Be specific!)

2.  Why did the Great Plains begin to erode?

3.  Why did the farmers head for California instead of other states? (Give 3 reasons.)

4.  Why were migrant workers were called Okies?

5.  What are two of the experiences of migrant workers that are experienced by all of humanity?

6.  True or False: Before 1940, only Anglo-American farmers worked in California.

7.  Why wasn’t California “the promised land” that migrant workers had hoped for? (Give at least 2 reasons.)

8.  What is a “ditchbank” camp? Who lived there?

9.  Why didn’t the migrant workers settle in one place?

10.  Who was primarily responsible for the daily running of the FSA camps?

11.  How did the workers spend their free time?

12.  What was the popular music of the time about?

13.  Why do you think they sang about these things so much?

14.  How did many of the migrant workers escape their conditions?

15.  Which of the photographs accompanying the article is the best representative of “The Migrant Experience”? Support your answer by describing the photograph itself and explaining what feelings the photograph evokes.

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