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Farming is a notoriously hard profession with long hours spent operating dangerous equipment and performing other arduous tasks. New Rice University research finds that Indigenous farm employees—many of whom have legal status in the U.S. after moving from Latin America—may experience more physical pain on the job than undocumented workers.

Researchers Christina Diaz, associate professor of sociology, and Erick Samayoa, a sociology graduate student, are the authors of "Away from Home, Into the Fields: Assessing the Health of Undocumented and Indigenous Farmworkers," which appears in a recent edition of Social Science & Medicine.

The researchers used data from the National Agricultural Worker Survey (including more than 20,000 respondents) to learn more about the lives of farm workers in the U.S., over 60% of whom are not in the U.S. legally and potentially susceptible to worse working conditions or exploitation.

Diaz and Samayoa found that undocumented workers actually reported better physical health than their Indigenous counterparts. Meanwhile, Indigenous workers were more likely than any other type of worker to report physical pain stemming from their profession.

The researchers said there are different reasons that these individuals may be dealing with more physical pain.

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