This is how children experience migration

Pedro wants to be a police officer and Ana a lawyer. Sofía is excited to study veterinary medicine and Roberto is excited to study medicine. The dreams of migrant children who cross Mexico in their attempt to reach the United States do not go away.

One in four migrants who come from Latin America and the Caribbean is a child. They migrate with their families or even alone.

According to the United Nations, since 2023, Latin American children migrate in “record amounts” and now they represent a larger proportion of the migrant population from other regions of the world.

Humanitarian organizations Inter-American Dialogue and Save the Children They visited three shelters in Tijuana, Mexico, where they talked with Latin American children and what they experienced to get to Mexico.

“You had to climb mountains, cross rivers and the currents were strong. I was drowning when we were passing one, but my mother didn’t let me go.” This is the testimony of a mobile child from South America.

“I liked the journey because it is for a new life that, in truth, many migrants need. And sometimes I didn’t like it, but you have to endure and be strong,” says another of the children interviewed whose names were not revealed.

Several of them have crossed up to seven countries from southern America to Mexico with hardly any money or contacts. Some arrived in Tijuana by bus. Others make use of La Bestia, a freight train that runs through Mexico from end to end.

According to the Inter-American Dialogue, poverty, inequality, armed conflicts, food insecurity and natural disasters are some of the causes of the migration of children and their families.

“Despite the terrible situations they have to go through, girls and boys continue living their childhood. They have desires: they want to be firefighters, police officers, doctors, astronauts or veterinarians. They also share the same basic needs such as going to school, receiving vaccines, playing and being protected,” the report states. “Girls, boys and adolescents in mobility” of Inter-American Dialogue and Save the Children.

As witnessed in the shelters, the efforts of the governments of origin, transit, destination and return of migration are positive, but insufficient.

“Governments are obliged by international humanitarian law and above all by the best interests of the child to guarantee respect for their physical and emotional integrity,” he explained to the Voice of AmericaSalvador Amilcar Carrillo, member of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute.

In El Salvador, the organization has assisted with cases of children born in Belize who find it difficult to access the formal educational system because they do not have Salvadoran identity documents.

As for migrant children in Tijuana, they receive non-formal educational classes thanks to the intervention of civil society actors and cooperation organizations.

They learn in a playful way, playing, and share their experiences with other boys and girls.

According to the Inter-American Dialogue, the parents of these children face situations of discrimination, xenophobia or racism by the school system. In addition to administrative barriers.

“The migrant population decides not to approach government services because they are afraid of being deported. (…) We face directors or teachers who reject the population that is mobile,” explains a shelter worker not identified in the report.

The Mexican Political Constitution and the School Access and Control Regulations of the Ministry of Public Education establish that children and adolescents, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to access the educational system of that country.

Regarding health, the organizations confirmed that “in the absence of state policies”, those who work in the shelters resort to bringing private doctors, making agreements with hospitals in Tijuana or going to private agencies to care for migrants.

The dangers of the trip are not only life-threatening, but there are also health risks such as gastrointestinal diseases due to consumption of spoiled food or unsafe water. Also dehydration and injuries from their transit in the jungles.

As in education, migrants fear being deported if they go to a health service in the area.

For the migration analyst, Fernando Castro, the causes of migration continue to be the lack of employment and development in the countries of origin, of which attention to migrant children in a situation of mobility takes a backseat.

“The foreign ministries in each country should seek care programs for migrant children in transit countries, for example Mexico. But the reality is that the countries are not even generating adequate financing to reduce the number of migrants,” he said. to the Voice of America.

Immigration, a campaign issue

The two main candidates for the White House: the current Democratic Vice President, Kamala Harris and the former Republican President Donald Trump, have made their position on immigration clear.

Harris promises to expand security on the border with Mexico, in addition to restarting the “strongest border bill in decades,” which involves hiring 1,500 Border Patrol agents to provide security at the border and 4,300 security officers. asylum who would be in charge of processing the applications of migrants seeking to enter the North American country legally.

Trump, on the other hand, is more rigid, promising mass deportations.

The United States continues to be the destination of one in five migrants worldwide, according to the Inter-American Dialogue organization.

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