Survey: COVID worsening causes for migration
EL PASO — Poverty, food insecurity, gang violence and weather disasters are root causes for continued mass migration to the United States, a trend now compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released last week by Hope Border Institute.
The migration is not expected to slow down anytime soon and may keep rising as conditions worsen throughout Latin America, particularly in Central America and Mexico, which showed a dramatic increase of “internally displaced” Mexican migrants due to violence that’s pushing people out of states such as Michoacan, Guerrero and Guanajuato.
The report surveyed 51 people over a two-month period in three different migrant shelters in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso.
As the Biden administration faces criticism for its border and migration policies from all sides, this study provides a firsthand account of the migrants, seeking to explain their determination to reach the U.S.
Among the findings: About 60 percent of those surveyed migrated as part of a family, and about 60 percent were internally displaced in their country of origin before attempting to migrate to the U.S. The report will be shared with Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s been charged with studying root causes, said Hannah Hollandbyrd, author of the report and policy specialist at the Hope Border Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of migrants and asylum seekers.
“I think the Biden administration needs to understand that deterrence is not a solution,” Hollandbyrd said “And root causes will require a big investment of effort, but it’s not compatible with a deterrent approach. We need a coherent migration policy approach that focuses on why people are leaving rather than criminalizing them once they’ve already taken that step.”
While attention in recent years has been focused mostly on migration from Central America, Mexicans fleeing violence have often been overlooked, Hollandbyrd said.
“For the Mexicans we interviewed, migration was mostly tied to extortion and violence,” she said. “For Central Americans, there was more a diversity of causes. A lot of people mentioned poverty and just not having access to basic needs like health care, food, lack of work and climate change.
“A lot of Central Americans lost homes, businesses, crops during natural disasters like hurricanes. The pandemic only added layers of insecurity on top of the situations that they’re already experiencing. The pandemic for these people already on the edge, this was the final straw.”
Another key conclusion for people experiencing violence, particularly women and the LGBT community, Hollandbyrd said, “was the lack of government protection. The government was completely absent in their lives.”
Overall, she added, while “we interviewed people at these shelters, there were many, many more and it was clear that with these push factors in place, it’s inevitable that more people will be forced to migrate.”
The report outlines a series of recommendations that include rebuilding the U.S. asylum process and bolstering legal paths for Central Ameri can migration; supporting local efforts by members of civil society to
hold governments accountable; expanding visas for family reunification; and creating apprenticeship, work and study visas for young Central Americans while simultaneously partnering up with key sectors of the private sector to provide opportunities for them.
The report also featured expert testimony from two researchers, Ursula Roldn Andrade, a researcher and coordinator at the Institute for Migration Research and Policy Management at the Rafael Lan dvar University in Guatemala, and Sister Nyzelle Juliana Dond in Honduras.
She is the coordinator for the Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana, the Honduran bishops’ migrant ministry.
“Change,” said Juliana, about climate change, “will require change from civil society from the ground up.” She pointed to a lack of basic needs provided by the government in migrants’ homelands, like water and sanitation. “So you need education that begins at an early age. Until we create an ecological understanding at an early age, it will be very difficult to make the change.”
Roldn added, “We all know the great polluters are the big developed countries. However, our own countries in Latin America, and specifically Guatemala, where I live, we need to educate our own government and the general population about the risk we face globally.”