4 by them. I guarantee if we stopped at any house up there and said, “I am looking for a farm labor camp close by here? Do you know where it is?” They wouldn’t know this was here. They wouldn’t know this was here.” Throughout these interviews, Jackie tells the story of fragmentation of the farmworker family. Migrant farm- worker children are impacted by invisibility, from their entry into the United States to their interactions with state institutions. Children of undocumented workers may cross the border with their parents and traverse the desert or rivers, while Mexicans with more social capital pay others to pass them oﬀ as their own children and travel with them. Crossing children is more dangerous when the children can talk, but do not understand why they are not allowed to talk. Once children arrive with their parents, they often fall through the cracks of the public school system if they are enrolled in school. While the parents do not need to show proof of legal residence to enroll their children in school, they must have a birth certiﬁcate, which the parents may not have brought, or may have lost, during the trip to the United States. According to Jackie, if migrant farmworker parents are able to locate a daycare, there is a good chance that their child would not be able to enroll. Daycares would rather have children enrolled whose living situation is stable, so the day- care can have a guaranteed revenue stream. Additionally, there is often minimal bilingual staﬀ. “You know, I don’t think it’s that they [daycares] don’t want [migrant] children necessarily, but they don’t have the. . . if it’s a licensed daycare, they don’t have the provisions in place and so you know they would be in violation [of rules about accomo- dations for non-English speakers] and they don’t know how to do that sort of thing. They don’t have anybody to translate their paperwork or anything like that. They don’t have anybody that can con- verse with their family. That sort of thing. So you know it’s, it’s a combination of things. . .(Sic)” Jackie’s narratives also chronicle the fundamental insta- bility of farmworker employment, as crop yields are highly dependent on unpredictable environmental factors; hence, there may be a ﬂood, a tornado, or a freeze that aﬀects the crop yield and forces farmworkers to relocate. Farmworkers are at the mercy of the harvest for their livelihood, as they do not receive unemployment beneﬁts. According to Jackie, in the event of crop failure, H-2A farmworkers do not receive relocation money or disaster assistance from the federal government, while there is crop insurance for farmers. Addi- tionally, H-2A farmworkers do not typically receive unem- ployment, so they must follow the crops to sustain their livelihood. Jackie describes below how timing is essential in the agricultural industry. “During peak season [is] when they’re picking squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, those kinds of things. You can walk out in the ﬁeld and see them. Let’s say, the cucumbers are here. And Nursing Research and Practice they thought they’re not quite ready to be picked, but tonight if the humidity is ideal, we better wake up in the morning and they be ready, they grow over night. Cucumber, zucchini, squash, can grow overnight, can be ready in the morning when you wake up. That’s why you need a labor force when you are a big grower like this. Every one of those plants is hand planted. The plastic is laid by mach- ine, but there are people following pushing dirt up on it to keep it from blowing up. Every one of those stakes, all that stringing is done. And talking of occupational health, when the stringing is going on, we have a lot of rotor cuﬀ injuries because they’re doing this all day long up and down these rows.” Invisibility takes a toll on the health of farmworkers. Jackie describes that when they are sick, farmworkers do not have the traditional support network of family to care for them or make sure that they take care of chronic health con- ditions. Not only is farmworker livelihood intimately con- nected to the weather and the seasons, Jackie explains that it is also inextricably connected to their health. The types of crops harvested determine the variety of pesticides used, which in turn may diﬀerentially impact their health. Certain repetitive movements elicit speciﬁc types of overuse injuries, such as rotator cuﬀ injuries. While picking cucumbers, contact dermatitis is common among farmworkers. Cutting mustard greens with a butcher knife frequently results in laceration injuries. Jackie was notiﬁed when a farmworker, very ill with syphilis, meningitis, and AIDS, was hospitalized and did not have anyone to care for him, or serve as his health care proxy as he was intubated and therefore unable to communicate. When he recovered, a girl claiming to be his sister-in-law picked him up from the hospital. It turned out that he had given a false name at the hospital, and he did not have a sister- in-law. This type of confusion and misrepresentation speaks to both the underlying fear of disclosing one’s true identity, as well as a lack of real social support. Many farmworkers use false names and identiﬁcation—they do not exist legally. 3.2. Access to Health Care. Jackie’s narratives underscore the lack of access to health care among migrant farmworkers. As she recounted, a migrant farmworker was living in his car, and he appeared constantly intoxicated. People who lived in the surrounding area complained of his intoxicated behavior, and so Jackie went to investigate. She found that the man was not drinking at all. She found money to send him to a doctor, and it was discovered that he had a brain tumor that was exerting pressure on his brain, so as to make him appear intoxicated. The tumor was operable, and once it was removed, the man’s mental status was completely restored. Late diagnosis of this brain tumor resulted from lack of access to care. Delayed diagnosis of treatable conditions leads to an increased burden on the health care system, as well as unnecessary suﬀering by individuals and families. This is also the case with delayed diagnosis of pregnancy.