Farmingville

The migration of thousands of Latino day workers to the Farmingville community has created great culture shock and debate. Education about each culture is one step towards helping the Latino workers assimilate, decrease segregation and help both sides with culture shock. Many members of the community have differing opinions and beliefs. Gaining a better understanding of these beliefs is the first step to finding a solution.
Louise says in the film that she wants to know who is around her and who lives in her neighborhood. The migrant workers have made her lose this feeling of comfort in her community. Margaret Bianculli-Dyber simply wants the migrant workers to disappear. She feels that U.S. laws have been disrespected and does not trust or appreciate that changes in Farmingville. In her quest, she does not understand nor ask, in a way that prompts answers, why these workers are in her community and how tensions can be decreased so that the community is not constantly at war. Margret does not consider herself to be racist, but is trying to make the clock turn back to a time where she did not have to worry about who is standing on her street corner. Paul Tonna, the county legislator understands that something needs to be done in Farmingville to decrease tension and supports the use of tax payer dollars to build a hiring site. If the community could find a way to educate each other about the cultures that are now in this town maybe tensions over cultural differences would decrease.
Both the day workers and the Farmingville residents are experiencing culture shock in this situation. They do not know how to interact in the other group’s culture and therefore they do not understand and are sometimes intolerant of the differences in their cultures. With education, both cultural groups would learn about where the other was from and how to communicate in a way that promotes a community feeling instead of dividing the community.
All three of the interviewees in Farmingville agree that there is a problem that started with the migrant workers moving into the town. The differences in the three are how they view the rift in the community and how they approach healing that rift. Margaret believes that the immediate deportation of all the migrant workers will instantly solve the community’s problems. Louise wants the community to be a community again, no matter who is in it. Paul Tonna wants to find a way that the migrant workers can work side by side with the legal residents of Farmingville. He does not propose allowing the situation to stay as it is but instead proposes that steps are taken to try and reach a common ground between the two cultures.
We feel that the key to better understanding this situation and finding a solution is in education and responsibility. First, all sides need to come together with an open mind and have rational conversations without loosing their tempers. If the legal Farmingville residents got to know the day laborers, why they choose to come to their community, what their intentions are, and general knowledge about their culture, that would be a start to better understanding. I think this aspect of the solution would help to put Louise at ease. A meeting like this would also help the day laborers to gain more information about the previous Farmingville culture and help them integrate it with their Latino culture.
Another aspect of the solution is to assign responsibility and hold people accountable. We feel that the Farmingville citizens, day laborers, and employers all have some responsibility in allowing this situation to escalate the way it has. The citizens have to understand that there is a need for the day laborers. They would not have come to a place where there was not a demand for manual labor. These citizens have no interest in mowing lawns or doing dishes, so to condemn the men who are willing to work hard is a serious mistake. The day migrant workers also have to realize that their presence has seriously changed the dynamic of the community. They must be held responsible for the same laws that all other community members are. Harassment, destruction of property, and other crimes are not to be tolerated from anyone. The employers need to find a balance with the work they are doing. They cannot skate around tax laws just to make a buck. These employers are changing the value and payment of manual labor. Middle ground is needed from what was done in the past to what is going on now.