Central American Migration

1
Central American Migration

• Lecture 6
• February 14, 2005

2
Outline

• Nicaragua
• Cause
• Migration
• Guatemala
• Cause
• Migration
• El Salvador
• Cause
• Migration

3
Nicaragua Migration

• Economic Causes
• Had a single cash crop coffee.
• During the Great Depression the price of coffee
  drop and the country switch to cotton.
  
• Cotton eliminated subsistence agriculture-to
  commercial agriculture.
  
• Economically it worked but socially was a
  disaster.
  
• Forcing thousands of farmers to migrant to
  Managua.

4
Nicaragua Migration

• Political Causes
• The Somoza dynasty ruled Nicaragua from
  1936-1979.
  
• The Somozas imposed a corrupt dictatorship more
  long lived than Porfirion Diaz Mexico and more
  ruthless than Fulgencio Batista Cuba (Winn, p.
  257).
• The Somoza family controlled the entire country.
• They controlled a quarter of the countrys
  arable land and twenty-six of its largest
  corporations (Winn, p. 257).
  
• The creation Sandinista National Liberation Front
  (FSNL) and victory in 1979.
  
• This launched an eight year assault by the
  Reagan Administration and the U.S.-backed Contras
  on the Sandinistas experiment in Nicaraguaat a
  cost of 30,000 lives (including combatants and
  civilians) and 14 billion in economic losses
  (Sinclair, 1995, p.13).
• Environmental Cause
• In December 23, 1972, an earthquake with a
  magnitude of 6.2 struck the capital city of
  Managua, leaving 10,000 people dead and the city
  destroyed (Leonard, 1987, p. 2).
• International aid poured into the county however,
  Somoza and his friends took the opportunity to
  steal millions of dollars in aid.
  
• It brought international attention and helped
  unite the opposition against the Somoza regime.

5
Nicaragua Migration

• U.S. Intervention
• William Walker proclaimed himself president in
  1855.
  
• In 1908, the Marines invaded in an effort to
  control and direct Nicaraguan politics.
  
• Then in the late 1920 and early 1930 United
  States Marines invaded again.
  
• After the last invasion the U.S. established and
  Maintained the National Guard.
  
• Somoza was the Director of the National Guard
  which later became the dictator.
  
• When Franklin D. Roosevelt was asked how he
  could support that son of a Somoza, he is said
  to replied Somoza may be a son of a but hes
  our son of (Winn, p. 257).
• Somoza was educated and trained in the School of
  the Americas.
  
• United States established a embargo against the
  Sandinista govt.

6
Nicaraguan Migration 1970s

• The search for work after the earthquake of 1972
  and the political crises of 1978 contributed to
  Nicaraguan migration.
  
• The Sandinistas were victorious over the Somoza
  government in July 19, 1979 had two affects
  
• First, the people who were in exile during the
  Somoza govt returned home to take part in the
  new government.
  
• Second, the wealthy and professionals that
  sympathized with the old regime left between 1979
  and 1980 they feared another Cuban situation
  specially to Miami.
• Central American Migration- During the Sandinista
  insurgency against Somoza, in 1978-79, an
  estimated 80,000 Nicaraguans fled to Costa Rica,
  and up to 100,000 entered Honduras.
• U.S. Migration- Another 10,000 may have gone to
  the U.S.

7
Nicaraguan Migration 1980s

• Contra insurgence Another wave of immigration
  began after 1981, because of the
  counterrevolutionary movement led by ex-Somoza
  generals and United States aid.
• Internal Migration- many Miskitos Indians and
  Ladinos were displaced internally due to the
  fighting and fled to other neighboring countries.
  
• In 1981, the number of persons who were displaced
  jumped from 8,500 to 140,000 in 1985.
  
• Internally Displaced and Total Migrant Nicaraguan
  Population 1985-86 (in thousands)

(Source Peterson 20)
8
Nicaraguan Migration 1980s

• Also, more than 650,000 were displaced due to the
  prolonged war between the U.S.-sponsored Contras
  and the Sandinista government (Ordoñez Gamboa,
  1997, p.168).
• Nicaragua had a later migration in 1986, because
  people were not satisfied with the Sandinista
  government.
  
• Finallly, in 1990 democratic elections were held
  in Nicaragua and the people defeated the
  Sandinista government at the ballot box.
  

9
Guatemalan Migration

• Social Causes
• Guatemalas problems with land, race and class
  date back to the conquest period.
  
• We Indians began thinking about the roots of
  the problem and came to the conclusion that
  everything stemmed from the ownership of land.
  The best land was not in our hands. It belongs
  to the big landowners (Menchu, p. 116).
• The Indians began associating white landowners
  with power and oppression.
  
• Ladinos (Spanish descendent), controlled the
  class structure and land ownership system.
  
• Established an oppressed systems against the
  peasants and Indians in Guatemala.

10
Guatemalan Migration

• Political Causes
• In Guatemala during the 1970s grassroots
  movements and guerrilla groups began forming to
  combat the oppression of the military and the
  government.
• The armed and non-armed movements had different
  methodologies in initiative change in a country
  that had neglected them.
  
• The government responded by eliminating key
  figures in the opposition organizations and using
  terror tactics to scare their sympathizers.
  
• Another tactic use by the govt was the massacres
  of entire villages and people who opposed the
  military.

11
Guatemala Migration

• United States Intervention
• Jacobo Arbenz (professor) is elected president of
  Guatemala.
  
• Introduces land reforms and seizes some idle
  lands of United Fruit Company.
  
• The land and labor reform introduced by President
  Jacobo Arbenzs administration, was a clear
  threat, to the properties owned by the powerful
  U.S. United Fruit Company.
• In 1954, the CIA under the administration of
  President Dwight Eisenhower overthrew the elected
  President Jacobo Arbenz, because of his socialist
  views and reforms (Orr 127).
• The death of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 set the stage
  for a power struggle for the countrys affairs,
  leading to military control of the governments
  over the next decades.
• The intervention by United States was a turning
  point, sending Guatemalan politics into chaos for
  the next thirty years.

12
Guatemalan Migration 1980s

• Of the Guatemalans who migrated to other Central
  American countries, about 80-90 percent resides
  in Mexico.
  
• The country first experienced considerable
  displacement in mid-1982 and by mid-1985, it had
  more than doubled to 600,000, when the government
  escalated the attack on the guerrilla movement
  and peasants in rural areas (Peterson 15).
• A large number of displaced Guatemalans preferred
  to stay close to their country or to move to a
  community similar to theirs such as Chiapas,
  Mexico.

Internally Displaced and Total Migrant Guatemalan
Population 1985-86 (in thousands)
(Source Peterson 15)
13
Guatemalan Migration 1980s

• An average of 2,000 Guatemalan refugees crossed
  into Mexico in the early 1980s as the army
  scorched-earth policy was implemented in the
  countryside.
• In 1982, the Mexican estimated as much as 120,000
  refugees in the country, more than double than in
  1981.
  
• So much, that the Mexican government mobilized to
  protect their border and prevent a spillover of
  the conflict.
  
• Most of the refugees are highland Indian
  peasantry.

14
Salvadoran Migration

• Social-economic Causes
• Population density El Salvador is compared to
  the state of Massachusetts.
  
• In 1979, the population of El Salvador contained
  the second largest population with an estimated
  4.6 million inhabitants.

Source Linda Peterson, 1986, p. 75 The World
Resource Institute, 1994, p. 269
15
Salvadoran Migration

• Socio-economic causes
• While the population continued to increase, so
  did the unemployment rate.
  
• The unemployment rate grew from 16 percent in
  1970 to 24 percent in 1980.
  
• This was due partly to the events that occurred
  in 1960 when the agricultural sector became
  mechanized and lack of land reforms.
  
• Rural to urban migration Unfortunately, the
  industrial sector had not developed to the point
  where urban areas could productively absorb those
  moving out of overcrowded rural areas. . . .
• Migration to Honduras Owning to the pressure
  on the land, many farmers migrated between 1940
  and 1969 to relatively underpopulated Honduras,
  where they settled as subsistence farmers
  (Blutstein 49).

16
Salvadoran Migration

• Socio-economic causes
• Land distribution system- two percent of the
  total population controlled sixty percent of the
  land.
  
• This inequitable land distribution created the
  class system, which divides El Salvadors rich
  and poor and culturally separates Whites/Mestizos
  and Indians.
• The coffee boom of 1870-1930 period contributed
  heavily to the fortification of the economy and
  gave the ladino/white landowners and foreign
  merchants reason to justify the formation of the
  fourteen families who rule El Salvador (Winn
  257).
• As the peasant leader Miguel Aleman said,
• The fourteen families were the owners of El
  Salvador, the owners of the governments, of all
  the money, and all the production. This is what
  generated great poverty in the middle of great
  wealth in our country, and that has been the
  fundamental problem of our peasants, who have
  been denied education, health, housing, and the
  respect that we deserve as human being. (Winn 528)

17
Salvadoran Migration

• Socio-economic
• The transformation of the agricultural economy
  allowed the oligarchy landowners to take
  advantage of the penetration of foreign and
  local capital to expand their estates, thus
  displacing thousands of Central American
  peasants.
• By the late 1970s six families of the Salvadoran
  oligarchy held more land than 133,000 small
  farmers (Barry Preush, 1986, p. 217).
  
• Second, it disrupted traditional modes of
  production by shifting from a subsistence
  farming to a cash crop base agriculture that
  harvested crops such as cauliflower or snow
  peas for U.S. markets (Hamilton Chinchilla,
  1997, p. 87).
• Third, it meant a reduction of the agricultural
  work force from 310,097 in 1961 to 267,079 in
  1975 by the introduction of the tractor and
  fertilizers (Gettleman, et all, 1981, p.68).
• As well, the agriculture shifted from subsistence
  farming to raising livestock in response to the
  growing American fast-food industry.
  
• For example, El Salvador in 1961, 11.8 percent
  of rural households were landless by 1971, 29.1
  percent owned no land, and by 1975, 40.9
  percent.
• In addition, the percentage of farms having less
  than one hectare increased from 40.4 to 49
  percent between 1950 and 1971 (Hamilton
  Chinchilla, 1991, p. 90).

18
Salvadoran Migration

• Political causes
• Farabundo Marti, a communist, organized a rural
  rebellion in 1932 in an attempt to end the social
  inequalities of the country.
  
• La Matanza- the government ruled by the oligarchy
  responded by killing 20,000 to 30,000 peasants in
  1932, a precursor of the civil war that rose
  during the 1980s.
• After the success of dismantling the revolt of
  1932, the Salvadoran elite and the military
  formed a partnership that would allow them to
  control the country for the next fifty years.
• Ruben Zamora gives a brief explanation of the
  reason why it was necessary for the country to
  enter into a civil war by saying, There was no
  political space (Winn 527).
• First, the opposition tried the electoral route,
  but they encountered fraud and repression.
  
• Second, the resistance experimented with
  extra-parliamentary politics and tried
  demonstrations. The response by the government
  was violent suppression.
• Third, adversaries formed a rare alliance with
  the military to participate in the 1979 coup
  d'état, but it brought no change (Winn 527).
  
• Fourth, a coalition of the five leftist groups
  came together in 1979 to form the Farabundo Marti
  National Liberation Front (FMNL), as an armed
  guerrilla movement.

19
Salvadoran Migration

• U.S. Intervention
• El Salvador was a pawn in the international chess
  game between the United States and the former
  Soviet Union.
  
• U.S. president Ronald Reagan campaigned against
  the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere
  and the threat it represented to United States
  security.
• The United States invested heavily to win the war
  in El Salvador.

United States Economic and Military Assistance
1953-1990
The number of U.S. personnel as of December 31,
1984 Source Booth Walker, 1993, p.
177
20
Salvadoran Migration

• The United States government did not want to be
  criticized internationally or domestically
  especially after the fiasco with the Vietnam War.
  
• As the United States increased aid to El Salvador
  approximately each year as, so did the human
  rights violations.
  
• Schools of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.
  When the war began the number of Salvadoran
  military been trained increased dramatically.
  For example, of the almost 4,000 Salvadoran
  officers trained at the Schools of the Americas
  since 1946, 80 percent of them received
  instruction since 1980 (Barry Preush, 1986, p.
  94).
• However, that did not stop the U.S. from
  investing an estimated 6 billion dollars in
  military and economic aid into El Salvadors
  civil war (Booth and Walker, 1993, p. 101).

21
Salvadoran Migration

• First, during the decade of the 1960s about
  300,000 Salvadorans migrated and settled in
  Honduras because of its abundant land.
  
• Second, Guatemala during the 1970s became the
  prime target of 300,000 Salvadorans searching for
  agricultural jobs (Peterson 7).
  
• Third, about 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants were
  admitted in the United States during the 1980s.

Internally Displaced and Total Migrant Salvadoran
Population 1985-86 (in thousands)
(Source Peterson, 1986, p. 10)
22
Salvadoran Migration 1970s

• (Historical-Structural Theory)
• The historical-structural theory and labor
  recruitment theory helps explain the causes and
  effects of the Salvadoran migration into the
  Washington Metropolitan Area during the 1970s.
• The historical-structural theory stresses the
  economic linkages between capitalism,
  globalization, and division of labor, which
  resulted in an outward migration, generally to
  areas from which the original investment of
  capital emanated.
• Second, the structural theory examines how the
  "penetration of foreign or domestic capital
  causes disruptions in traditional modes of
  production and exchanges. . . .
• Third, how migration is one response to these
  economic dislocations and to changes in the world
  economy as people are forced to find new ways to
  earn a livelihood and to provide to their
  families" (Repak, 1995, pp. 24-25).

23
Salvadoran Migration 1970s

• (Labor Recruitment Theory)
• The labor recruitment theory is similar to the
  historical-structural approach in that both use
  economic factors as a major determinist for
  migration.
• The labor recruitment theory explains how
  employers recruit workers indirectly or directly
  for a cheap labor force.
  
• But how did the United States recruited
  Salvadoran workers to come to the Washington area?

24
Salvadoran Migration 1970s

• The United States was shifting from a manufacture
  to a service-based economy, which created a
  demand for salespersons, administrative and
  clerical workers (Phillips, 1996, p. 532).
• Women filled the jobs created in the service
  industry and joined the labor force at a dramatic
  rate.
  
• Pink collar or private household occupations such
  as childcare providers and household keepers
  increased during the 1970s.
  
• The Washington D.C. area was experiencing a
  shortage of housekeepers, child-care providers,
  and cleaning staffs.
  
• Salvadoran women were being recruited or invited
  to work in the nation's capital during the 1970s
  by American government officials, diplomats, and
  workers of international non-profit organizations
  to fill the shortage (Repak, 1995, p. 11).

Table 3.Labor Force Participation of Women by
Race/Ethnicity
Source Zinn Dill, 1994, p. 28 Note Based
on women sixteen or older
25
Salvadoran Migration 1970s

• Foreign domestic help provided American women the
  opportunity to undertake full-time jobs and solve
  their child-care and household dilemmas.
  
• The U.S., Census estimated that the 73,000
  Salvadoran had entered the United States during
  the decade of the 70s (Peterson, 1986, p.7).
  
• However, 60 percent who entered the United States
  were women, the percentage coincides with the
  labor recruitment theory and Terry Repaks
  findings.
• The Salvadoran women emerge as pioneers when they
  were recruited to work as domestic help and
  emigrated from El Salvador to Washington D.C.
  
• A gender-based migration was created and became
  the first massive Salvadoran migration flow into
  the area and established the first social
  networks.
• form their own social network, which eventually
  provided job referrals, housing, and other forms
  of assistance to later immigrants from their
  countries of origins (Repak, 1995, p. 181).
• This gender-based migration added a critical
  (although often overlooked) element to
  understanding the ebb and flow of entire
  communities, households, and individuals across
  national borders" (p. 25).

26
Salvadoran Migration 1980s

• The displacement of the population of El Salvador
  increased dramatically as the civil war
  escalated.
  
• For example, in 1980, 2,000 people were
  registered as displaced in 1983, it grew to
  468,000 and the persons displaced grew, in 1985,
  to 535,000 (Peterson, 1986, p. 11).
• A survey revealed that 28. 5 percent of the
  Salvadoran who arrived after 1980 responded that
  they emigrated exclusively for political reasons
  and 20.6 percent for political and economic
  reasons (Montes Garcia, 1988, p. 13).
• Chain migration- Many immigrants eventually
  arrived to large urban centers where earlier
  immigrants had established a strong Latino
  community with a strong supporting social network
  such as the case of Washington D.C.
• This social system was created by the women in
  the 1970s and "contributed to the rapid
  development of a thriving community that ensures
  the continuation of cultural traditions and
  assists coethnics in the settlement process"
  during the 1980s (Repak, 1995, p. 181).
• An example of the chain migration in the
  metropolitan area is the case of Salvadorans from
  the towns of Chirilagua and Intipuca.
  
• These immigrants arrived after original
  immigrants invited friends and relatives to join
  them as job market and wage levels were favorable
  in D.C. (Repak, 1995, p. 83).

27
Central America before Hurricane Mitch

• Guatemala (1961-1998), Nicaragua (1979-1990), and
  El Salvador (1979-1992) experienced long civil
  wars.
  
• A widened social gap between the rich and the
  poor and an astronomical poverty level existed in
  Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
  
• out of 1,000 children born in our countries
  Central America, 425 have mother who are
  illiterate, 130 are born under weight, 84 will
  died before the age of five, 678 will live in
  poverty . . . out of those 540 will be
  undernourished 400 will not have access to
  portable water only 68 would be able to complete
  the six grade (Ordoñez Gamboa, p. 19).

28
Honduras Before

• The political, economic, and social situation of
  Honduras before Hurricane Mitch was oblique. In
  the case of the government of President Callejas
  (1990-1994) experienced an economic collapse
  during his last year in office.
• Foreign debt increased from 3 billion to 3.5
  billion, the fiscal incremented from 5 percent to
  11 percent, and inflation triple to 30 percent
  (Ordoñez Gamboa, 1997, p.145).
• The unemployment rate grew from 22 to 30
  (1990-1994).
  
• President Callejas took over the country with a
  poverty rate of 53 and at the end of his term
  the poverty rate increased to 60. By 1998
  poverty rate had climbed to 72!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

29
El Salvador before

• When the war finally came to an end in 1992,
  after twelve years of fighting, it left 70,000
  people dead, billions of dollars in destruction,
  and one-third of the population displaced.
• It was concluded that 61.1 percent of the
  indigenous population live in poverty, 38.3
  percent in extreme poverty, while only 0.6
  percent are able to cover the basic necessities
  of life (Payne, 2000, p.2).
• The national unemployment rate rose from 7.7
  percent to 10 percent between 1994 and 1996.

30
Honduras After

• In the case of Honduras, the destruction caused
  by Mitch is greater than any other country in the
  region.
  
• Mitchs aftermath left 6,076 casualties, millions
  homeless (Moore, 1998, p. A1), an estimated 3.4
  billion in damages (Hunt, 1999, p. 9), 11,000
  missing (Kovaleski, 1998, A1), 83,000 thousand
  homes destroyed, (Sobieraj, 1999, p. A7), 70 of
  the agriculture output devastated, and 60 of the
  nations infrastructure destroyed including 170
  bridges (Moore, 1998, A36).
• The U.S. Company Chiquita Brands International is
  the biggest foreign company in Honduras.
  
• The company has laid off most of its workers and
  has lost 11 million banana plants in their 17,300
  acres.
  
• Overall, the banana economy has lost an estimated
  90 of the industry and a total of 27 million
  banana plants (Anderson, 1998, p. A39).
  
• Honduras has lost its infrastructure and the
  agriculture capacity to generate a cash flow over
  the next couple of years to rebuild the country.

31
Nicaragua After

• In Nicaragua, the force of Hurricane Mitch killed
  3,000 people, displaced 900,000, and destroyed
  billions of dollars of infrastructure.
  
• Mitch never made direct contact with Nicaragua
  unlike Honduras, but the heavy rainfall of 50
  inches in some areas caused deadly landslides.
  
• For example, in the Casitas Volcano a deadly
  mudslide killed most of the 4,000 residents of
  the area and destroyed 30 communities.
  
• In Nicaragua, an estimated 1.4 million people or
  about 20 percent of the total population need
  housing (Kovaleski, 1998, p. A1).
  
• Nicaragua will need an estimated 1 billion to
  rebuild damaged infrastructure including 1,500
  miles or roads and highways, 80 bridges, more
  than 300 schools and dozens of health clinics,
  civic buildings and public markets that were
  damaged or destroyed (Kovaleski, 1998, p. A26).

32
El Salvador

• In addition, 46 percent of the males and 55
  percent of the females between the ages 25 and 45
  work in the informal sector (Payne, 2000,
  pp.1-3).
• El Salvador was least affected of the three
  countries with only 240 deaths, 19 missing
  people, 85,000 homeless, and 400 million dollars
  in damages (Payne, 2000, p.2).
• However, the population that was most affected
  was the same Salvadoran rural population that ten
  years earlier were displaced by the civil war.
  
• The poverty levels increased even further after
  Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America.
  

33
Impact in the US

• Consequently, Immigration and Naturalization
  Services (INS) officials began reporting an
  influx of Central American immigrants crossing
  the U.S. border.
• From November to December of 1998, the number of
  immigrants apprehended at the border rose to 39
  over the same period last year and in January
  incremented to an astronomical 153 (Robinson,
  1999, p. 43).
• From November to the end of January, U.S.
  officials along the Texas border apprehended
  6,555 people described as other than Mexicans.
  They were nearly all Central American immigrants,
  who were fleeing the devastation of Hurricane
  Mitch.
• The Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS)
  reported in March 1999 a record of 213,306
  apprehensions along the border of which an
  estimated 30 percent were of Salvadoran origin
  (http//ins.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/msrma
  y00/swbord.htm).
• In addition, the United States was not the only
  country experiencing high influx of Central
  American immigrants in their borders. For
  example, Between Nov. 1 and Jan. 3, Mexico
  caught and expelled 31,995 immigrants at its five
  busiest immigration stations, a 70 percent
  increase over last year (Zarembo, 1999, p. 47).

34
El Salvador
Table 9.Salvadoran Immigration Data 1988-1994
Source Immigration and Naturalization Service
www,fairus.org/html/msas/042dcwdc.htm