Why Hondurans have joined migrant caravan
Honduras is a wonderful place for a short visit, despite its reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous places. Like New Zealand, it is a small, beautiful country with an abundance of natural resources and a warm, welcoming culture. But it is a very hard place to live, so when news emerged of a caravan of migrants making their way across Guatemala and Mexico to the United States, I wasn’t surprised.
The place migrants are leaving is more important and relevant than the place they are going to. Political corruption and repression, gangs, drug cartels, land pressures and climate change make life very difficult for most Hondurans, and impossible for some. Every Honduran has a story of violence. Business owners sleep on the premises with a gun for protection, and drivers carry extra cash to pay corrupt police if pulled over. People avoid the centre of large cities wherever possible.
In 2017, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that, in Honduras, ‘‘corruption is the operating system’’, with ‘‘repression . . . carefully targeted for maximum psychological effect’’. When conditions are this bad, large-scale migration is inevitable, and many are in effect refugees.
Rather than being the victim of a migrant invasion, the US is complicit. While local elites and politicians carry much of the blame for the chaos, decades of US meddling has played a significant role. Poverty and inequality in Honduras have their roots in the activities of American fruit companies throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The current instability can be traced to the 2009 coup, the success of which was partly attributable to US policy.
More recent meddling includes the endorsement of the fraudulent election of President Juan Orlando Herna´ ndez in 2017. Since that election there has been another increase in political violence and repression.
Although the caravan seems huge to us, this is just a drop in the bucket, with more than 300,000 people crossing the border illegally from Mexico into the US in 2017 (a historic low – down from 1.6 million in 2000). It is also just a fraction of the number of undocumented migrants, refugees and asylum seekers worldwide.
However, this caravan is part of a trend towards migrants and refugees travelling in larger groups, with the journey through Mexico being incredibly dangerous. Rape is common. Amnesty International estimates 60 per cent of women and girls who attempt the journey individually or in small groups are raped en route.
Individual stories often get lost in the numbers and rhetoric. Focusing on the numbers lends credence to the rhetoric of invasion. It is important to remember that each member of the caravan is a person, with a story, a family, and dreams for the future. The caravan includes many young men, but rather than being criminals, many are escaping the gangs, planning to work hard to send money home. Indeed, the remittances that will be sent by migrants and refugees are of far greater value to Honduran development than any official aid. The key to reducing future migration may well be development stimulated by the money these migrants will send home.
Finally, this caravan might seem far away and irrelevant to us in New Zealand, and (as my Honduran husband can attest) the number of Central Americans who reach here is tiny. However, we should take notice, because the global climate that has led to the emergence of migrant caravans and the racist, anti-immigration rhetoric of Donald Trump and others affects us too.
The rhetoric of Australian politicians and their refusal to show any compassion towards those who attempt to reach their shores should sound a warning here. Generalising and stereotyping migrants and refugees is a dangerous step towards an even more insecure world, where those who already have the good life are protected, and those who don’t are stuck in a noman’s land of poverty, violence and insecurity.
Compassion and recognition of the humanity of refugees and migrants are important steps towards building a more secure future and a peaceful world.