Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/series/dairyland-diversity/)
Reporter Jacob Kushner and photographer Jake Naughton went to Darlington, Wis., for the latest installment of our Dairyland Diversity package (it’s here: Immigrant dairy workers transform a rural Wisconsin community). And they came back with an unusual coming-to-America story. One in which the old guard and the new wave are actually living in relative harmony.
An influx of immigrants into Wisconsin’s dairy industry is giving a new Hispanic flavor to rural areas.
Wisconsin’s dairies are expanding, and they can’t do it without immigrant labor. Part 5 in our Dairyland Diversity project.
May 26, 2010
Back to the story: “Wisconsin dairy farms are growing — along with their Hispanic work forces,” by Jacob Kushner, Part 5 of the Center’s Dairyland Diversity project
Dairy dashboard Powered by Tableau
Dairy farmers say they want access to immigrant workers without getting into legal trouble. But many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are running away from the issue.
Drivers beware: There’s a woman driving a stretch of Interstate 90 between Sparta and Tomah — without a license or any training about Wisconsin’s traffic laws.
They traveled 1,720 miles to work long hours on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin, among people who do not speak their language and in a place where their presence is illegal. Part 3 in our Dairyland Diversity project.
A growing number of Wisconsin dairy farmers are relying on immigrants to milk their cows and keep their farms running smoothly. But experts say farmers are often caught in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” web of federal employment regulations, with a strong incentive to know as little as possible about the legal status of their workers.
DODGEVILLE — Rapid increases in the Latino population of Wisconsin’s rural areas are reshaping work, school and social life, but also are raising concerns that Spanish-speaking immigrants are often isolated and mistrusted, experts and residents said at an event aimed at fostering better connections between newcomers and long-time residents.
Wisconsin Public Television, a partner with the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, talks with Wisconsin farmers about the role of Hispanic immigrant workers in the dairy industry, as part of a new investigation launched by the Center.