The sugarcane manual harvesting process is widely recognized as being aggressive, besides exposing workers to health, physical and mental injures. Several cases of workers death due to bad work conditions in sugarcane crops were already reported. This paper aims to discuss the health of sugar cane workers in the region of São José do Rio Preto (SP) and also factors that trigger migration flows. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand how sugarcane workers deal with job aspects that lead to health injuries. The results show that the majority uses self-medication to relieve flu symptoms, body aches, and malaise. Self-medication use is, therefore, a rationalizing element of the work to prevent reductions in the manual harvesting process. Leading us to look at the precarious conditions of labor relations of the sugarcane workers. Moreover, in face of the reduction of non-specialized sugarcane jobs' (sugarcane cutters) due to the spread of mechanized harvesting, we discuss some possible externalities of it. We conclude that the migration flow is not only due to inequalities in per capita income between the Brazilian's regions and the opportunity to access consumer goods, but, mostly, to the hope of better wages and the unemployment rate. Thus, we tend to believe that, even though the non-specialized sugarcane jobs' will disappear, there will still be migration flow to this region.
occupational health; migration; sugarcane; public policies