Bracero Program
The Bracero Programs (from the Spanish term bracero , meaning "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms") were the result of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. For these farmworkers, the agreement guaranteed decent living conditions (sanitation, adequate shelter, and food) and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour, as well as protections from forced military service, and guaranteed that a part of wages was to be put into a private savings account in Mexico; it also allowed the importation of contract laborers from Guam as a temporary measure during the early phases of World War II. The agreement was extended with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951 (), enacted as an amendment to the Agricultural Act of 1949 by the United States Congress, which set the official parameters for the Bracero Program until its termination in 1964. A 2018 study published in the American Economic Review found that the termination of the Bracero Program did not raise wages or employment for American-born farm workers. A 2023 study in the American Economic Journal found that the termination of the