September 25, 2020
NEW REPORT: Breaking the Shell: How Maryland migrant crab pickers continue to be “picked apart”
El Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM), worked closely with women migrant workers for months on the project: Breaking the Shell: How Maryland’s migrant crab pickers continue to be “picked apart”.
This survey-based report comes at an urgent moment when the pandemic is heightening health and safety risks for the women on H-2B visas who sustain Maryland’s crab industry-- just this July, 50 migrant crab pickers fell ill with COVID-19 on Hooper’s Island.
Breaking the Shell is a look-back to our 2010 report, Picked Apart: The Hidden Struggles of Migrant Worker Women in the Maryland Crab Industry. In the last ten years, with the help and leadership of women migrant workers and allies, we have ensured the prohibition of exploitative recruitment fees. Thanks to our joint efforts, migrant worker women are no longer paying to work as crab pickers on Maryland’s Eastern Shore -- this is a huge win. However, there is still much to be done to guarantee that migrant workers have safe, stable and hygienic working conditions.
Breaking the Shell reveals that the structure of guestworker programs continue to push crab pickers to make an impossible decision: tolerate abuse or return home to Mexico and risk never being hired under the program.
Here are some of our key findings:
Workers live in crowded housing, work in cramped conditions, and have limited access to medical care.
Workers are routinely exposed to asthma-inducing fumes through the crab-steaming process and lack of protective equipment.
Employers and recruiters discriminate against migrant worker women, channelling them into lower-paying jobs versus their male coworkers.
Employers fail to provide accommodations for pregnant workers, forcing them to quit and return to Mexico.
These findings strengthen our reason to fight for change. In Breaking the Shell, we include recommendations, such as federal and state legislation that tackle abuse in recruitment, ensure emergency standards during COVID-19 and eradicate discrimination.
You can read more about the report here
CDM is incredibly grateful to all of the migrant women whose stories and voices shaped this report, and to our incredible co-authors: the Clinic of International Human Rights at American University Washington College of Law and the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown Law.
We are determined to advance migrant justice and we appeal to the union of migrant worker women and recognize their bravery and strength in raising their voices to say Enough: The health and safety of migrant women should not depend on the goodwill of their employers! And the state and federal government have the power to improve conditions for women crab pickers!
Join us in fighting for migrant justice. If you are a migrant worker in the crab picking industry, you can take action sharing your experience anonymously here. For more information, you can contact Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM):
Call for free from the United States: 1.855.234.9699
Call for free from Mexico: 800 590 1773
Email: [email protected]