Education, the path of two young refugees to move from fear to hope

Like everything bad, the situation in the city of San Salvador, in El Salvador, gradually worsened. In 2019, the violence caused by gangs reached such a level that setting up a business, going out on the street or using public transport became a risk.

This is how Nathaly Raquel Machado Velasco, 25, tells it, whose life, like water heated to boiling, was gradually changing due to violence. First, she dropped out of school; then she quit her job and finally she decided to stop going out on the streets: her routine became a constant fear of being kidnapped by gangs.

That day in May, she and her husband Enrique López, 29, made a decision: they had to leave the country and they had to do it now.

“My husband had problems with these groups (gangs) and so did my family, which is why we came to the conclusion that if we stayed there, in my country, we were never going to achieve anything: not even he was going to be able to start a business or something because they were going to bother him, nor could I go out to study or walk freely in the street, because either they rob you or they kidnap you… you couldn’t,” he says in an interview with UN News in Spanish.

“There you can’t ride the bus alone because they come up to you and tell you things. What we wanted to avoid is that they ask me something and I refuse because if you refused, something could happen to you, they could grab you by force, ”she recalls.

So Nathaly and Enrique packed a few belongings, boarded a bus that took them to Guatemala, and then crossed the southern border of Mexico on foot, through Palenque, where relatives were already waiting for them. They finally felt safe but the long road to integrate into a new country and another culture had barely begun.

Courtesy of Andres Rafael Escala Acosta

Andrés Escala Acosta (L) poses with his family in Mexico City, Mexico.

His wish: to become an engineer

Originally from Margarita Island, in eastern Venezuela, Andrés Rafael Escala Acosta, 21, misses the spaciousness of the so-called “pearl of the Caribbean”, the warmth of his countrymen, and the turquoise blue color of the sea that painted his days and followed him wherever he turned. Despite this, his greatest desire is to study to become an engineer, which forced him to emigrate from his country.

“I arrived in Mexico the last week of 2018 as a humanitarian refugee, fleeing my country. I left because of the general situation: crime was at levels where you couldn’t even leave your house. I came to read news of people who went out at eight at night and to rob them, they shot them. The situation was very dangerous, apart from the problems of basic services: suddenly we spent a week without electricity, almost two months without water, a whole month without internet… Getting gas was very complicated and the whole situation in general in the country … It was very difficult to continue living there,” he says.

“My mom told me: it’s time for us to move for your own good, because you’re not going to be able to finish your degree in Venezuela, most likely you’ll stay 8 or 9 years trying to finish and you won’t. My mother told me the same thing. family”

Today, Andrés has changed the sea and the beach for another ecosystem: a jungle of asphalt and buildings called Mexico City, the capital of the country, which has allowed him to continue studying. He emigrated with his mother, an aunt and a cousin as the most viable option to complete his studies; her father stayed in Venezuela.

Although he appreciates the food, the great monuments and the architecture, Andrés Rafael describes his Mexican experience as “overwhelming”, especially because of the difference in size between his native island and the land that has welcomed him.

Just to give an example, while in Margarita the population is 600,000 inhabitants, 9.2 million people live in Mexico City but, with the floating population that comes to work and then leaves, this figure exceeds 20 million. That is, Mexico City is 15 times larger than Margarita.

“The size of Mexico City is overwhelming. I was used to living on an island where everything was half an hour away, to live in a city where the average time (of transfer) is an hour and a half to anywhere , too many people. It was very difficult for me to adapt“, trusts the young man who longs to finish his university education and graduate as an engineer.

Courtesy of Nathaly Raquel Velasco

Nathaly (right) during a workshop to combat bullying at a Secondary School in Palenque, Chiapas.

A hand for refugees

Today, thank you Albert Einstein German Academic Initiative (DAFI) of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), both young people stayed in Mexico and managed to go back to school: Andrés Rafael studies Telematics Engineering at one of the best study centers in the country: the National Polytechnic Institute; while Nathaly Raquel studies a Bachelor of Social Work at the Universidad Salazar Palenque campus.

The two were approached by family members who already lived in Mexico and told them about it. The program offers the refugee and qualified student population the possibility of obtaining an academic degree in their country of origin or host country. In addition to financial support, UNHCR provided them with psychological support to face the change of life.

Worldwide, the Initiative has supported the enrollment and completion of tertiary education for more than 18,500 young refugees since 1992; It is designed to cover various expenses such as tuition, fees, study material, food, transportation and accommodation, among others.

In addition, those who obtain scholarships from the program receive close accompaniment, preparation and language courses, and networking and mentoring opportunities.

In Latin America, the program operates in Mexico and Ecuador; in the first of the countries, it started in 2019 and currently supports 52 scholarship holders. Worldwide, this 2022 the initiative celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Mariana Echandi Ruiz, UNHCR Durable Solutions officer explained that the objective of the program in Mexico is to work with higher education institutions so that opportunities can be expanded so that young refugees can integrate into the country through their studies, become professionals, and give back to the society that has received them, through their own education.

Courtesy of Nathaly Raquel Velasco

Nathaly (right) and her husband Enrique pose in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.

Not only the home is abandoned, but also the life project

“When a person leaves their country, they not only leave their home, their families, but even this life project that they had. Education, school, are spaces of protection for children, for adolescence, for youth”, she explains.

“The opportunity offered to young people through a program like DAFI makes it possible to reduce the obstacles, the difficulties that a young person in the country of asylum would have to integrate into higher education (…) The DAFI program, what What he does is extend a hand to refugees, to young refugees so that they do not abandon their dream of continuing their education”.

According to data from the UNHCR itself, updated to May 2022, more and more people find international protection in Mexico. In 2021, more than 131,000 people applied for asylum in the country, a record number, 220 percent more than in 2020.

Start over

Despite missing their places of origin and their families, the difficulties of adapting to the new environment, making friends, starting a career, and the long process to obtain legal residence in Mexico, Andrés and Nathaly have managed to resume their lives.

For Andrés, the decision to leave Venezuela and emigrate to Mexico was difficult, although in the end he had little to lose, he confesses. Arriving here, he received the hospitality of a Mexican family who welcomed him and helped him in the first months of his stay in the country.

Nathaly Raquel went through a long period of uncertainty since she did not know if she was going to be able to obtain legal residence in the country. If you add to that missing her home and her family, the first year was the most difficult of her entire process.

“The first year was very difficult because even though each country has its things, it is not perfect, there is always something, but you want to be there because you have grown up there and your family, your friends, everything is there. You move in your country because you know it and everything. Coming here and not having papers… We spent 9 months in uncertainty”, he says.

Three years after their arrival in Mexico, both are settled with their families, they have new friends and, above all, the hope of a better future.

“I was going through a bad time when the pandemic started because I couldn’t work, I didn’t have money, I didn’t know how I was going to pay for the next semester… When I joined the DAFI program, with this support I felt like a breather and thanks to him, I have been able to continue supporting myself, I have not had to find myself in the situation of abandoning my career”, says Andrés Rafael. “I was not going to have this personal growth if I had stayed in Venezuela.”