The personal stories of those who venture into irregular migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to try to reach the United States do not respond to a single cause identified by the governments to find a solution to the problem, according to a study revealed on Wednesday.
The text released by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI) indicates that these causes are multiple and appear to be “complex and changing.”
“Narratives about emigration are often in conflict, with many migrants and their families seeing it as an essential hope, while governments sometimes portray it as a destabilizing threat,” says the MPI study, which delves deeper to understand the phenomenon. from various angles.
Ariel Ruiz, an analyst at that institution and one of the authors, commented when presenting the results of the research that the discoveries lead to the “discrepancies” existing between the public policies created to address the problem and the reality of families and communities. where irregular migration originates from.
“Migration is part of a vital process in Central America, and we are going to understand that there will always be some migration,” said the expert, who considers that there is currently a clear situation that generates “stress” both in governments and in migrant groups due to “How is migration orchestrated”.
The study team, made up of both MPI experts and experts from outside the institution, addressed various aspects to understand the phenomenon.
“The study evaluated more than 200 documents (including government policy documents, local and national media articles, and reports from international and non-governmental organizations), supplemented by relevant background information, public opinion surveys, and data on migration trends,” the report explains. .
Long-term investments do not face the present
One of the most outstanding aspects when presenting the report -and the questions about its scope- point to the “disparity” found between the policies with which it seeks to reach the causes of irregular migration, the ways to contain it and the immediate reality of families who do not feel these “viable” solutions for the present.
The researcher, Natalia Banulescu, says that the messages from governments about the risks of migrating irregularly “are not consistent with the real alternatives for people.”
During the administration of President Joe Biden, a private capital investment plan for Central America has been promoted with the objective of generating opportunities for the nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to find opportunities in their countries so that desist from migrating irregularly.
In two years of management, commitments have been achieved from the private sector in the United States to invest about 3,200 million dollars in the region in the coming years.
“The Vice President (Kamala Harris) launched the Call to Action for companies and social enterprises to make meaningful commitments to promote economic opportunities for the people of the region,” the State Department announced by increasing investments at the beginning of this year.
However, experts see that those projects that have a public policy design focused on addressing the causes, are still far from the imminent reality that presses people in many cases in “desperate” situations.
The research also delves into several of the narratives that would explain migration such as climate change, citizen insecurity, poverty and other factors that in many cases are not explained by just one, but by various causes to understand the phenomenon.
Also from the region there is a duality in the plans to “try to retain” the labor of its citizens, when these from abroad pay billions of dollars in remittances each year that together represent over 25% of the Domestic Product Gross (GDP) for each of the Central American countries, which puts another piece in the “complicated” panorama of migration, says the study.
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