Numbering over 2 million and passing through as many as 30 States. these people occupy the fringes of our society. Dwelling in ghettoes of one type or another. they have been excluded from even the most basic. minimum social legislation that many of us here have personally experienced. and perhaps taken for granted. Exposed to many communities. but accepted by few. the migrant citizen is as longsuffering as he is much lamented. As stated in the hearing on the bill. "there is no national issue studied so intensively over so long a time. in such sympathetic spirit. with such negligible results." Today. however. the tide is changing. Congress is. and has. taken steps to alleviate some of the problems confronting our citizen farmworkers and their families. Last week this Congress. with support from both sides of the aisle. passed by voice vote the migratory labor health bill. S. 1130. This was a firm first stepbut a step which must be followed by more if our migrant citizens are to escape from their daily role. namely. the role of a thirdclass citizen in a Nation dedicated to a classless society. Over the past few years all of us have become acutely aware of the pathetic situation of our migratory citizens. President Kennedy recently referred to the migrants as people who are shortchanged even in a time of prosperity. Our mass media. too. have documented their poverty and neglect showing it to be an irrational waste of human potentialCBS documentary "Harvest of Shame." Consequently. I have no intention of calling forth the parade of problems that confront the migrants. Thousands of people in this Nation are sick and tired of hearing about the plight of the migrant farmworkerand rightfully so. Today. we need action. We need to turn the great hoard of abstract statements into sound legislative measures that will make the migrants work more productive. their daily lives more healthful. and their futures more meaningful. We have such a legislative measure before us today. Passage of this measure this session is critically needed by many and will hurt no one.
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migrants migrant