Southeastern Ohio does not often find people wanting to move onto its lands. The notoriously poor Appalachian area is low in rent and living costs, however, and these factors make it appealing to the growing number of Mexican immigrants looking for an inexpensive place to live and work. States with high migrant worker populations such as Arizona, California and Florida also have high living costs. The migrant workers now living in and around the small river town of Racine, Ohio in the Meigs County have lived in these areas, but opted for an inexpensive northern alternative. They can save more money to send home to family in Mexico and also hold on to more money for when they return to Mexico in the coming years.
The growing numbers of migrant workers have come together to form a small community within the hills near the Ohio River. They work and live together, raise families and care for one another as if they had known each all their lives. This Hispanic community is forming in an area that has seen far more people go than come in the last decades. They often keep to themselves, accepting any outside help that is offered. Some are involved in relationships with those from the area. They have families, children on the way, and a new life far from the one they left in Mexico.
Local employers appreciate the migrants reliability and hard work. A Racine greenhouse owner, who wished to remain unnamed, says that he cannot find any locals to work reliably anymore. He cannot count on them to come to work when he needs them to be there. The owner says that the labor jobs at his greenhouse are low pay and they always will be. The wages are still much greater than anything the migrants can get in Mexico.
While employment and devotion to a family far away draws them to Ohio, their homesickness remains. Some make new lives in the area, marrying United States citizens and beginning families. Others only plan to stay for a few years before returning to Mexico. Whil
