As we have seen, the changa functions as a form of temporary labor that, while it exploits indigenous manual labor, it serves as an escape valve that is fundamental to alleviate the social pressure deriving from the overpopulation on the reserves – above all for the vast majority of young people who have dropped out of school, whether in the world of the whites (the purutuyé high schools) or in the villages (where there is a chance of finishing basic education). These young people – who make up 90% of the work-“crews” – find themselves in a critical moment: already out of school (for that reason they work in changas), they have lost the chance to escape "to the world of the whites" and compete in a labor market in a totally inferior position (only a few privileged individuals manage to compete); on the “reserves”, they vacillate between marrying – and making their future there, in the gardens and in an occasional outside job – or trying their luck in the underemployment of the cities, using (when it exists) the network of solidarity of the kingroup already established there.

The statistics of the socio-economic survey that we undertook during our fieldwork for the Work Group of the FUNAI indicate a worrisome social situation in the short run: on three reserves (Cachoeirinha, Taunay-Ipegue and Buriti), more than 65% of the total population consists of Terena up to the age of 24. The generation conflicts (between young people and the authority of the elders) and among the young people themselves are becoming more and more violent, above all in Cachoeirinha and Taunay-Ipegue, where the possibilities of using the changa as an escape valve are diminishing. On the Buriti reserve, given the physical proximity of an alcohol plant and of Ceval Foods, those problems have still not become manifest with the same intensity. Examining the latest labor contracts with the plants in Cachoeirinha, for example, this number has decreased, year by year, since 1993.

This overall picture tends to get worse in the short run given the changes in the methods of harvesting sugarcane that the plants of the region will be implementing in the next few years (several of them are already practicing the new method) – and which dispense with manual labor in cutting (this new method, already quite widespread in the interior of the state of São Paulo, introduces a harvesting machine in direct cutting and planting which avoids the burning of the canefield). Which means massive layoffs of indigenous manual labor (Terena and Guarani), which accounted in previous years for 100% of the employees in the cutting of the cane in all the plants of the region.

The federal and state governments will have to deal with the fate of a mass of temporary indigenous laborers totaling more than 20 thousand Indians, which is the combined Terena and Guarani labor population. If, among the Guarani, the suicides of young people is the symptom of an explosive socio-cultural situation, among the Terena the symptom will be the violence among gangs of youths inside the reserves, which means a state that, without exaggerating, could be described as, in the least, one of “internal convulsion" and, in the extreme, one of “civil war". The numbers of conflicts among young people in the last few years, in Cachoeirinha, already indicates this.

The present-day reserves, given their obvious and extreme territorial limitations, also create serious obstacles against the economic absorption of the Terena young people: as 95% of the parents are agriculturalists, the natural future for them would be tilling the land in the area of the domestic group to which they belong. However, given the technical conditions of Terena agriculture, the absorption of a new member does not increase the area planted; thus, the alternative would be to clear a new area for planting in forest reserves – which always ends up in a tense political negotiation with the Council of the village which in general prohibits new clearings, due to the risk of remaining without woods, which are necessary for firewood, material for artwork as well as being a source of remedies. And also, there is no incentive whatsoever, on the part of the government agencies, seeking to diversify activities within the reserves which could attract the young people who have recently left the schools.

Despite this picture, the vocation of agriculturalists (undoubtedly, the activity that, so to speak, defines the Terena ethos) still exists on the reserves – and the balance between this practice and female labor is shown in the ecological equilibrium of the landscape, observed in the analysis of satellite-images. The vast areas of vegetation which are still preserved in the three indigenous considered here – despite internal pressure from new cultivation areas – reflects the need to maintain the basic sources of work of the Terena women: ceramics, cooking and plant extraction. But here another limitation appears: the market for artwork, which is also not given any incentive by any of the governments. The result of this limitation is the growing number of young Terena women employed as housemaids in regional urban centers – whence it is common for them to come back pregnant by the sons (or even husbands) of their "patroas" [mistresses].

On the other hand, the Terena who live exclusively from tilling the soil (82% of those between 24-60 years old in Cachoeirinha; 78% in Buriti and 54% in Taunay-Ipegue) are not able to get from that activity the income necessary to sustain their family group for the whole year. The average number of members of this group is seven people, according to the survey conducted; the cultivated areas per group are no larger than one hectare (they are not larger due to the limitation in buying oil and paying the tractor driver), with an average productivity of 25 sacks of beans, 12 of corn, 120 kilos of manioc and (more rarely), 15 sacks of rice. As one Terena leader of Cachoeirinha declared, the Terena still plant because it “is in their blood, but it’s not enough to live off...". With luck, there is generally one retired person per family (who receives pension).

As a result of this overall picture, people seek work outside the reserve, and also they are giving more value to women’s work, be it as maids in the urban centers, or in the production of ceramics and in extracting bacuri palm. But along with that there is a perverse counterpart, which is the great offer of manual labor and the subsequent reduction in pay.