Work-related opportunities and safety behaviors among immigrant cattle feedyard workers with a TN visa
Athena K. Ramos, PhD, MBA, MS, CPM, University of Nebraska Medical Center; Marcela Carvajal-Suarez, MPH, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Athena Ramos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and is affiliated with the Center for Reducing Health Disparities and the Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (CS-CASH) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska. She leads a Latino outreach and engagement team and serves as principal investigator for a number of community-based health and social research and education initiatives in such areas as occupational health and safety, immigrant integration, and community well-being.
Learning objective:
To discuss how TN visa program is used on cattle feedyards and describe the demographic and health characteristics of TN visa holders.
Discuss this presentation with the authors on Wednesday, November 18 from noon – 12:30 on the Zoom Live-stream
Hispanic/Latino cattle feedyard workers have come to the Midwest through different pathways. For some of them, this is a temporary experience, but for others, the work is an opportunity to permanently relocate to the area. Various visa programs allow foreign-born farmworkers to work in feedyards. The TN visa is one of the more commonly used programs. We use data from the “Health and Safety Risks of Immigrant Cattle Feedyard Workers in the Central States” project (n = 243 Hispanic/Latino workers). We conducted descriptive and bivariate analyses to describe the differences and associations of work, work-related injuries, and the type and language of training among workers with and without a TN visa. Most workers did not have any type of visa (79.4%), but among workers with visa, 85.4% had a TN visa. TN visa holders were more likely to be limited English proficient and have higher educational attainment than non-visa holders. Over 85% of TN visa holders reported receiving job-related safety training, compared to 72.6% of workers without a TN visa. The TN visa program offers foreign-born professionals an opportunity to work in the U.S.; however, critical oversight of the TN visa program, safety and health promotion, and job-related protections are still needed for this vulnerable immigrant workforce.
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