H-2A visas for white South African employees have surged 1,300% since 2011

by Jennifer Bamberg, Examine Midwest, Examine Midwest
June 11, 2025

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Yearly, a whole bunch of hundreds of international employees come to the U.S. to fill non permanent agricultural labor shortages by the H-2A program — a system first launched in 1986 to handle shortages in farmwork.

From 2011 to 2024, using this system grew greater than 400%, with practically 90% of visas going to employees from Mexico.

However the fastest-growing group is from South Africa – and predominantly white, in accordance with non-public and federal lawsuits.

Whereas South Africans encompass solely 3% of this system, their numbers have climbed by 1,300% in accordance with information from the State Division between 2011 and 2024, and the speed of enhance far outpaces some other nationality.

The speedy rise has collided with authorized scrutiny.

Since 2022, the Mississippi Heart for Justice, a legislation agency targeted on advancing racial and financial justice, has filed seven lawsuits on behalf of Black farmworkers in Mississippi, alleging they have been paid lower than non permanent employees from overseas who have been principally white males from South Africa.

Every of these lawsuits have been settled out of court docket with vital compensation and again pay, in accordance with lawyer Rob McDuff, who represented the plaintiffs. The most recent case, filed in Might, continues to be pending.

“That is the newest model of an age-old downside in America, by way of the therapy of Black farmworkers,” McDuff mentioned.

The Division of Labor, below the Biden administration, performed its personal investigation following these preliminary lawsuits and located 44 extra agricultural employers in Mississippi to be in violation of the H-2A program’s legislation. By 2023, the division’s Wage and Hour Division had recovered $505,000 in again wages for 161 employees whose rights have been violated. Employers have been additionally required to pay a further $341,838 in civil cash penalties.

The South African Chamber of Commerce within the USA, a non-partisan, impartial group and enterprise affiliation, promotes the work program to its residents. After the lawsuits, the group labored with the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa to make the H-2A program extra inclusive and various.

The federal authorities tracks the nation of origin for visa holders, however doesn’t gather information on which companies rent these employees. Agricultural corporations within the southeast host the most important variety of H-2A employees within the nation.

As a result of South Africans communicate English and their rising and harvest seasons are the alternative of North America’s, they make engaging candidates.

“You may get any nationality you need in H-2A, and we selected South Africans as a result of their English is best,” Joel Brown, a farmer in Missouri, instructed Farm Progress. “There are quite a lot of massive farms in South Africa, and a few of these guys are coming off these farms.”

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