237 CHAPTER 9 The Grass of Wrath: U.S. Labour Migration and Organizing Practices among Peruvian Sheepherders Karsten Paerregaard This* chapter examines the historical development and social organisa- tion of a global migration network of Peruvian peasants who travel to the United States on H-2A visas to work as sheepherders for American ranchers on three years labour contracts (León 2001: 148). It also ana- lyzes the importance of the remittances and savings of these herders on the rural economy of peasant communities in Peru’s central highlands. Finally, the chapter explores the social implications of U.S. labour migra- tion for migrants’ livelihood strategies and discusses the broader social and political perspectives of this migration practice for poverty allevia- tion in Peru as well as in other Third World countries. The chapter draws on ield research in the Alto Cunas area of Peru’s central highlands irst of all from 1983 to 1985, and later between 1997 and 2000, and in Los Angeles and Bakersield, California, in 1998. Theorizing Poverty Alleviation in a Global Context A growing body of literature within the theories of development in Third World countries calls for more attention to be given to the importance and implication of people’s own efforts to alleviate poverty and improve their living conditions (Long 2001). Some of these studies point to de- centralisation and empowerment as the answer to rapid change and sug- gest that such an approach takes the point of departure in people’s own organizing capacity and conventional knowledge (Escobar 2008). Others * A previous version of this chapter was published in Spanish in El Quinto Suyo. Transnacionali- dad y formaciones diásporicas en la migration peruana, ed. Ulla Berg and Karsten Paerregaard (Lima: IEP, 2005), 69–96.