American Agricultural Economics Association Conference Paper: "Poverty Amid Prosperity: Immigration and the Changing Face of Rural America" UC Davis co-authors: Philip Martin and J. Edward Taylor, professors Date and time: Monday, Aug. 3, 1:30 to 3 p.m. The United States runs the risk of creating a new rural poverty if it fails to adopt appropriate immigration and integration policies, Martin and Taylor say. They suggest poverty may evolve elsewhere as it has in California's San Joaquin Valley. The area has seven of the 10 U.S. cities with the most immigrants living in concentrated poverty, yet its farm sales exceed those of any state except California. In a study of 65 rural communities in the valley between 1980 and 1990, the professors found that 100 additional farm jobs result in an additional 139 individuals -- including immigrants, their families and area residents -- living in poverty. "It suggests that there is a vicious circle of more farm jobs, more immigration and more poverty," Martin says. The solution, they say, is framed by two extremes: either eliminate the need to integrate foreign-born farm workers in rural areas by allowing them only guest worker status, or focus on economic development and other efforts that permit immigrants and their children to achieve upward mobility in the United States.