Los jornaleros agrícolas de origen indígena y su mercado de trabajo en México

A socioeconomic characterization of indigenous day laborers is made based upon the National Day Laborers Survey 2009. The databases were reorganized considering the origin community’s characteristics in order to identify in a better way their indigenous status. Subsequently, their origin, educational level, as well as labor and income conditions were analyzed for building the different poverty lines. Among the principal conclusions, it was found that due to their high poverty the day laborers are mainly migrants, and that they have not better working alternatives because of the way in which they join the labor market. Therefore, they have no choice but to migrate and work in at least two crops every year in order to be employed. Also, their most important organization forms are ethnic and focused in defending their non-labor rights, which reduces their possibilities for improving their labor conditions through formal ways.