ABSTRACT
Anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a major, if not growing, alcohol and substance abuse problem among transnational Mexican farmworkers. These workers travel, without their families, thousands of miles from their Mexican villages to agricultural regions across the United States, and remain anywhere from a few months to two or three years before returning to their homeland. Police and medical care providers who have compiled statistics on this issue, claim that single Mexican males disproportionately are perpetrators of alcohol-related infractions of the law or victims of alcohol-related accidents and deaths. The available literature on alcohol and farmworkers, which does not include transnational migrants, is unable to substantiate or challenge these observations. This subject clearly demands further research. However, successfully conducting substance abuse studies among transnational migrants is a difficult proposition. The migrants’ transnational status, judicial immigration standing (residing and working in the United States legally or illegally), and residence practices in the United States are only a few of the obstacles.
