We took the statements of the local people. such as county commissioners. State officials. and others. I would like to suggest there may be one area of confusion when the Senator speaks of the number of migrant workers. We are using figures representing families as well as workers. We found families with eight or nine or 10 children that might be included in the labor statistics the Senator has referred to as one single personthe father of that family. for example. But the figure of 22.000 for Collier County was the figureand I think the Senator from New York will verify this. if he recalls the testimonythat was used by persons who came before the committee. indicating that. at the peak of the season. that was approximately the migrant population. The 22.000 figure was cited by our first witness. Mr. T. Michael Foster. He said at page 26 of our transcript that the entire migrant population of Collier County is estimated by the countys migrant health project to be "22.000 persons during fiscal year 1968." The figure he cited was taken from "Florida Migrant Health Project Report. 19671968." by the Florida State Board of Health in cooperation with the U.S. Public Health Service. In the Immokalee area alone. the president of the chamber of commerce testified that the peak migrant population was as high as 12.000. That appears at page 152 of our transcript. He also said that the day the committee was in Immokalee there were approximately 4.000 migrant workers there. There may be one other area that explains the Senators somewhat lower figure. and that is that some local officials who testified before the committee said "These people are not residents." One county commissioner. as I remember. said. "They are not Collier people. They are not even Florida people.
Keywords matched
migrant Migrant