Why Central Americans Emigrate? Patterns and Gaps Within Academic Research

Migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have come to be powerfully associated with the US–Mexico border in powerful ways in the twenty-first century. In the midst of great national distress about the Trump administration’s violent policies and practices, the images of Central American child victims became symbols of the horrors of this historical moment. In one widespread response, the hashtag #FamiliesBelongTogether is used to express solidarity and demand an end to family separation at the border. While well intentioned, this approach overlooks various other forms of US intervention through state-sanctioned violence against Central Americans across time. Rooted in Central American studies, we propose a broader analytical lens on family separation and a more expansive notion of border that includes the entire length of the Mexican territory. Our analysis centers multiple types of family separation while highlighting the US role in creating the conditions that often force families to separate. Guided by people’s lived experiences, we understand "family separation" as any moment in which families are forcibly separated—whether through murder as committed during war; across borders, as is the case for transnational families created through migration or deportation; or through government institutionalization, via detention centers or the foster care system.

“And You Welcomed Me?”:: A Theological Response to the Militarization of the US–Mexico Borders and the Criminalization of Undocumented Migrants Ilsup Ahn, Agnes Chiu, and William O'Neill Since 1994, when NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) went into effect, the US–Mexico border security has been significantly tightened, and as a result, over 5,000 undocumented migrants have perished in the Sonoran desert near the US–Mexico border. According to Androff and Tavassoli, approximately 4 percent (11.9 million) of the US population are undocumented immigrants making up 5.4 percent (8.3 million) of the US workforce. Seventy‐six percent of these undocumented immigrants are reported to be Hispanic, and among these, Mexican undocumented migrants take up about 59 percent (7 million). Although the Obama administration is currently pushing forward its political campaign for the long overdue immigration reform, the administration makes clear that the US government will continue to securitize the US–Mexico border with enhanced surveillance technologies and increased Border Patrol agents. We are not sure at the moment how the government budget fallout incurred by the sequester will affect the future of its policy on border militarization. In this paper, in the midst of the current political turmoil revolving around the immigration reform, we will explore the relatively unknown side of the increased border militarization—dehumanization of undocumented migrants—from the vantage point of Christian theology and ethics. Our initial position is that the immigration crisis is not merely a political, economic, or legal conundrum; it is indeed one of the most pressing ethical issues in America today because the widespread human rights violations and dehumanization of undocumented migrant people are structurally interrelated with the militarization of the borders as well as the criminalization of all undocumented migrants. The militarization of the US–Mexico border and the criminalization of undocumented migrants First, what is the border militarization and how does the border militarization become an ethical issue to consider? Perhaps the border militarization may be illustrated by the increasing numbers of the Border Patrol agents and their budgets. There are about 22,000 Border Patrol agents today, compared to 4,000 in 1992. Among 22,000 agents, about 4,000 agents are stationed in the “Tucson Sector” covering the Southwest border area from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line in western Arizona. The budget for the Border Patrol has increased exponentially from $262 million in 1990 to over $3.5 billion in 2011, and the nearly $12 billion budget of the Border Patrol's parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been doubled since 2004. The border militarization is particularly concentrated on the Southwest borders in Arizona. According to Raymond Michalowski, the militarization of the US–Mexico border has significantly increased the social injuries of those who cross the border without documentation in three broad categories: “(1) bodily harms such as death, injury, and illness, (2) exploitation by human smugglers, drug organizations, and sometimes law enforcement personnel, and (3) dehumanization in the form of hyper‐criminalization, vigilantism, and abuses to human dignity.” Since the first major step toward militarization of the US–Mexico border was launched in 1994 in the name of Operation Gatekeeper, the annual death count rose from 24 in 1994 in the San Diego borderlands, to 147 by 1998, marking the 600 percent increase. The increasing militarization of the US–Mexico border, however, failed to prevent migrant people from Mexico and Central America from crossing attempts; as a matter of fact, the increasing numbers of migrants were forced to choose more dangerous routes so that they would not get caught by the Border Patrol agents. As a result of this unfortunate devolvement, by 2005 the overall death toll near the border area reached its astounding number of 5,000. Critically analyzing the cause of this increased death toll, Michalowski argues that the increased death toll of undocumented migrants is the intentional result of “border militarization strategies designed to force migrants away from safer routes and toward more dangerous ones.” The border militarization policies have also begotten another unintended, but deadly side effect. As a result of these policies, ideal conditions for the emergence of a new...

The US–Mexico international border was officially established in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It extends 1960 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, with four US states (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) bordering six Mexican states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas). There are 14 sister‐cities that are paired and interdependent on each side of the border, separated only by the international boundary – most famously, San Diego–Tijuana and El Paso–Ciudad Juarez. There are 42 official crossing points along the US–Mexico border. It is estimated that it is one of the most transited borders in the world, second only to the US–Canada border. Populations along the US–Mexico border also include many indigenous tribes who live on both sides of the border and are separated by the international boundary. There are 26 federally recognized indigenous tribes on the US side, and seven officially‐recognized indigenous tribes on the Mexican. Conflict over indigenous sovereignty and immigration law enforcement has emerged recently. Most notably, the Tohono O'odhma people, mostly settled in northern Sonora, Mexico, and in north to central Arizona, have complained that the US Border Patrol has detained and deported members of their nation traveling through their own traditional lands. With the Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area, signed in 1983 in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, both the United States and Mexico designated the border region as 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) on each side of the international boundary. Today, 12 million people live in this border region , 90 percent of whom reside in the 14 sister‐cities . The population is expected to reach 19.4 million by 2020 (EPA 2009). One of the most important issues, that has actually brought about cooperation among both the United States and Mexico, has been the pollution along the border. Rapid population growth coupled with industrial development and waste has created environmentally unsound air and water quality for the population living in the 14 metropolitan areas along the US–Mexico border. Population growth, as well as migration, unemployment and underemployment, along the border has been closely linked to the emergence and expansion of the maquiladoras – outsourced assembly plants. In 1965, the Mexican government launched the Mexican Industrialization Program (BIP) to provide economic incentives for US and international companies to establish assembly plants in the border region. In 1994, the US–Mexico border was opened up further to trade and assembly plants with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This essay addresses the controversy over whether structural or assimilation theories best explain the labor market incorporation of international migrants in the United States with a case study of recent Central American migrants in Washington, D.C. It considers the structural factors and human capital variables that influence wage levels and employment mobility for Central American women versus those that affect Central American men. Data from a study of 50 Central American households indicate that the variables affecting wage levels and employment mobility are clearly differentiated on the basis of gender. Structural factors have greater significance for men, while human capital variables appear to influence wage levels for women, to a limited extent. But gender factors and structural barriers in the Washington, D.C. area economy pose blocks to women 's occupational success and render them incapable of fully utilizing their human capital advantages. Within the nascent literature on recent Central American migrants to the United States, the theoretical question whether structural or assimilation theory best explains their economic incorporation in U.S. labor markets has yet to be tested. The question issues from the debate about whether the structure of the labor market has greater significance for immigrant economic success than immigrants' individual characteristics (i.e., human capital). Utilizing census data from 1980, one study (Wallace 1986) compares recent Central American and Mexican immigrants and finds that Central American immigrants in California possess significant human capital advantages over Mexican immigrants, including higher education, occupation, and English levels. Yet Central American men earn the same as Mexican men despite these advantages. Wallace surmises that Central Americans might be entering the same stratified labor market as Mexican immigrants and that structural theory would explain men's economic position. Certain groups of Central American women, on the other hand, demonstrate a slight earnings advantage over Mexican female immigrants, leading to the supposition that Central American women follow assimilationist predictions for economic incorporation. The data presented here on Central American migrants to Washington, D.C. broaden the debate about immigrant economic incorporation with a case study of a city that previously did not have an established, low-paid Latino labor force (as in California). In addition, the Washington, D.C. area is representative of a labor market in which professional and service jobs, rather than production and assembly jobs, predominate. In assessing the factors that account for differences in Central American men's and women's wage levels and employment mobility, this study carefully considers the problem of gendered patterns in labor market incorporation. The findings for Central American men support the predictions of structural theory that occupational success depends more on the economic context than on the immigrants' skills. But while superficially, Central American women appear to follow the predictions of assimilation theory as in Wallace's study, this pattern may be limited to low income and low status occupations, as he cautions. This paper posits that wage levels and

Background: Residents of the US–Mexico border face cost-related barriers in accessing necessary medical care. Given the potential for individualized or broader tailoring of solutions to reflect community needs, we sought to identify risk factors for being uninsured and forgoing necessary medical care due to cost among a largely Hispanic adult population residing along the US–Mexico border. Methods: Surveys among adults in a major US–Mexico border area were used to investigate cost-related forgone medical care and lack of insurance. Binary Logit models were employed to model multiple binary outcomes informed by our theoretical frameworks. Results: Lower education, Hispanic ethnicity, being younger, lacking underlying illness and/or having obesity, forgoing medical care due to cost, and having lower income were associated with a higher likelihood of being uninsured; while being female, being younger, having underlying illness and/or having obesity (potential increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19), lacking insurance, and having a lower income were risk factors for forgone medical care due to cost. Conclusions: This study adds novel insight into existing health inequities facing those residing along the US–Mexico border region, thereby holding timely public health implications.

PurposeIn this paper, the authors suggest that Central Americans can use entrepreneurship to solve economic uncertainty in their home country and that entrepreneurship can contribute to reducing the number of undocumented migrants to the USA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first illustrate the context of Central American illegal migration to the USA from a transitional entrepreneurship perspective, the authors address the economic drivers of illegal migration from Central America, which results in marginalization in the USA. Second, the authors build a theoretical model that suggests that Central Americans can improve their entrepreneurial abilities through the entrepreneurial cognitive adjustment mechanism.FindingsCentral Americans at risk of illegally migrating to the USA have high entrepreneurial aptitudes. Entrepreneurship can help them avoid the economic uncertainty that drives Central Americans to illegally migrate to the USA and become part of a marginalized community of undocumented immigrants. This conceptual paper introduces an entrepreneurial cognitive adjustment mechanism as a tool for Central Americans to reshape their personalities and increase their entrepreneurial abilities in their home countries. In particular, entrepreneurial intentions reshape the personality characteristics of individuals (in terms of high agreeableness and openness to experiences, as well as low neuroticism) through the entrepreneurial cognitive adjustment mechanism, which consists of reflective action in sensemaking, cognitive frameworks in pattern recognition and coping in positive affect.Originality/valueThis paper studies Central Americans at risk of illegal migration using the lens of transitional entrepreneurship, which advances the understanding of the antecedents to marginalized immigrant communities in the USA and suggests a possible solution for this phenomenon. Besides, the authors build a cognitive mechanism to facilitate the transitional process starting from entrepreneurial intention to reshaping individuals' personality, which further opens individuals' minds to entrepreneurial opportunities. Since entrepreneurial intention applies the same way to all entrepreneurs, the authors' aim of constructing the entrepreneurial intention unfolding process will go beyond transitional entrepreneurship and contribute to intention-action knowledge generation (Donaldson et al., 2021). Moreover, the conceptual study contributes to public policy such that international and local agencies can better utilize resources and implement long-term solutions to the drivers of illegal migration from Central America to the USA.

Migration, Acculturation, and Sexual and Reproductive Health of Latino Adolescents

The US–Mexico international border was officially established in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It extends 1960 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, with four US states (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) bordering six Mexican states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas). There are 14 sister-cities that are paired and interdependent on each side of the border, separated only by the international boundary – most famously, San Diego–Tijuana and El Paso–Ciudad Juarez. There are 42 official crossing points along the US–Mexico border. It is estimated that it is one of the most transited borders in the world, second only to the US–Canada border. Populations along the US–Mexico border also include many indigenous tribes who live on both sides of the border and are separated by the international boundary. There are 26 federally recognized indigenous tribes on the US side, and seven officially-recognized indigenous tribes on the Mexican. Conflict over indigenous sovereignty and immigration law enforcement has emerged recently. Most notably, the Tohono O'odhma people, mostly settled in northern Sonora, Mexico, and in north to central Arizona, have complained that the US Border Patrol has detained and deported members of their nation traveling through their own traditional lands. With the Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area, signed in 1983 in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico, both the United States and Mexico designated the border region as 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) on each side of the international boundary. Today, 12 million people live in this border region , 90 percent of whom reside in the 14 sister-cities . The population is expected to reach 19.4 million by 2020 (EPA 2009). One of the most important issues, that has actually brought about cooperation among both the United States and Mexico, has been the pollution along the border. Rapid population growth coupled with industrial development and waste has created environmentally unsound air and water quality for the population living in the 14 metropolitan areas along the US–Mexico border. Population growth, as well as migration, unemployment and underemployment, along the border has been closely linked to the emergence and expansion of the maquiladoras – outsourced assembly plants. In 1965, the Mexican government launched the Mexican Industrialization Program (BIP) to provide economic incentives for US and international companies to establish assembly plants in the border region. In 1994, the US–Mexico border was opened up further to trade and assembly plants with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Keywords: borders; immigration; migration; violence

Introduction Until the late 1970s, the Central American economies were growing, although only the growth rates of Costa Rica and Panama surpassed the average annual GDP per capita of the world. In hindsight, this record, for all its limitations, was a golden age on the isthmus as it was for much of the world. Since 1990, most Central American countries have fallen farther behind, with Nicaragua failing to recover the ground it lost since the late 1970s. The inability of dictators to reform imposed painful costs on most Central Americans. Ill-timed external shocks compounded the effects of war. As states battled insurgents, the sudden drop in the terms of trade in 1979, along with the rise in interest rates on foreign loans, led to a contraction of economic activity. Both external shocks were central components of a generalized economic crisis highlighting the weaknesses of a growth model that relied on exporting agricultural commodities, ones whose prices were volatile and whose benefits concentrated among landowners, as I showed in Chapter 1. Although many of them were waging war, Central American policy makers had little choice but to stabilize their economies. They devalued currencies , renegotiated foreign debts , and balanced state budgets, which reduced incomes and worsened recessions. Like their South America counterparts, Central American states opted to shrink their role in the economy as they stabilized (Kingstone, 2011 ). By the end of the decade, policy makers in both countries – even Costa Rica, the country with the region’s largest state and most successful economy – had returned to the libertarian doctrines of the past, ones associated with decidedly mixed results for economic growth and development.

Reviewed by: Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America by Robert Brenneman Kristy Nabhan-Warren (bio) Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America. By Robert Brenneman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 294 pp. $ 24.95. Robert Brenneman's Homies and Hermanos is a thoroughly researched, engaging sociological study of transnational gang and evangelical Christian subcultures in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The author's aim is to make sense of these cultures and to understand more deeply the push and pull factors of gangs and evangelical Christianity for those adolescent and young adult Central Americans who join. Homies and Hermanos is at once a sophisticated qualitative sociology and at the same time an accessibly written book. Academics and non-academics alike who are interested in understanding the allure of gangs and evangelical Christianity in Central America more specifically, and on a global scale more broadly, will not be disappointed. Brenneman delivers a captivating portrayal of his Central American interlocutors and their complex social milieu. In the opening pages of the book, the reader is swept into the life of "JJ," a former ranflero, leader of the White Fence mara, gang, whose story begins with details of a life of life of poverty and abuse. It is a gripping entrée to the book's larger sociological investigation. We learn of JJ's entry into gang life at the young age of nine, his increasing involvement in his teens and rise to power as a ranflero, and his eventual decision to leave the gang for evangelical Christianity. JJ's narrative is one of many compelling narratives of hardship, and redemption in the book, and Brenneman contextualizes these narratives with a larger social history of transnationalism and a sociology of emotions. As he notes, there are many studies of gang entrance and membership, but far fewer studies of gang exit (15). Moreover, rather than focus on the individual gang members' psychological health as a push factor into gang membership, which he finds limiting because it tends to blame victims caught up in complex social constraints, Brenneman offers a much more nuanced and helpful exploration of the broader social reasons why young men and women decide to join gangs—and then later decide to leave them. Based on his interviews with sixty-three ex-gang members, as well as twelve sympathizers, the author discovered that poverty, problems at home, and stresses at school were the three primary reasons why Central American youth join gangs (74). To these male and female ex-gang members, gangs offered a hope of stability, family atmosphere, acceptance and protection that their biological and extended kinship systems failed to provide. The overarching sociology of emotions Brenneman uses as a frame for his study leads him to focus on shame as a key push factor to joining these violent transnational gangs. What linked all of his interlocutors' narratives was their shame—for being abused, for having an alcoholic parent, an absent mother and/ or father, for being poor, and for failures in school. Low self-esteem, he discovered in the course of his research, is connected to the overarching social constraints in which these youth find themselves. It is here in the book that Brenneman draws on the social theorist Randall Collins' interaction ritual chain theory approach to explain the complexity of emotions that ultimately leads young adults to join a gang and to undergo rituals of violence and sacrifice. Joining a gang, Brenneman argues, is less a rational decision than it is an accumulated emotional response to the various social push and pull [End Page 291] factors that accumulate (84-5). These young adults experience a rebirth when they undergo the ritual of brinco (jumping in), which is considered to be their bautizmo (baptism) and official membership into a gang (94). Newly baptized, their shame is mitigated by the violence done to them and that they in turn commit. Young men, who comprise the vast majority of Central American gang membership, experience a new kind of manhood and power via violent acts, and it is through these actions as homies that they gain respeto among their peers. The acquisition of tattoos, sex, drugs and guns...

Politics, time, space, and attitudes toward US–Mexico border security

The Bookstores of the US–Mexico Border J. L. Powers (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution IT ISN'T EASY TO GET TO REDFORD, TEXAS. There's only one road in or out, a two-lane highway that runs along the US–Mexico border from Presidio to Lajitas before it veers north and ends in Terlingua. You probably haven't heard of these communities. That's because, for most people, there honestly aren't a lot of reasons to visit. As of 2020, Redford is a small community of twenty-three people, down from ninety-three people in 2010. There is no store, no gas station, no school, no nothing. Redford "thrived" in the past only because border crossings by raft across the Rio Grande river were unregulated, so the American town and the Mexican town across the river were like one community. Like many of these small border villages, it has essentially died in the wake of policies that stopped these historically engrained—though technically illegal and unsanctioned—back-and-forth travels and cross-border trade. American and Mexican communities required one intertwined economy to provide key items—gasoline or groceries, for example—and now that they are cut off from each other, each community is choking from its lack of access to essentials. Maybe books aren't "essential" like gas or groceries, but they are the lifeblood of the mind. And I wanted to visit Redford because I had heard about Lucia Madrid, a woman of indomitable energy whose lending library, launched in the Madrid General Store in 1979, grew to include fifteen thousand books and operated until her death in 2006. In Redford's crumbling adobes and in the deteriorating storefront that has long since been shuttered and abandoned, I found little left of her dedication to the love of books and ideas. But I did find her spirit in the bookstores scattered along the 1,951-mile US–Mexico border, many [End Page 5] of them small and curated by booksellers with singular tastes but catering to their unique communities. Because all border communities, just like Redford, deal with isolation: whether physical isolation since they are difficult to reach, or political and social isolation because they aren't seen as financial or cultural epicenters. Rather than viewing their isolation as a problem, booksellers along the border see this as an opportunity. "There are tangible and intangible borders in the world, and books can bridge those gaps," says Sarah Cuadra, owner of the Storybook Garden in Weslaco, Texas. "There will always be conflict, but the more we seek to understand, the better." "The beauty of being isolated is that regardless of our political or social beliefs, we all need each other," says Julie Green, book buyer for Front Street Books in Alpine, Texas. Recently, my dad and I visited as many of these bookstores as possible to find out how people in each of these places are making the sacrifice to ensure books are accessible in peripheral places long forgotten by the so-called "center." LIBÉLULA San Diego, California Jesi Gutierrez, co-owner and creative director, describes Libélula's collection as books that represent the "Chicanx experience, books in Spanish, Spanglish, as well as stories of migration, and of the living on severed lands, from both sides of the line. We are also happy to carry as many books as we can get on the local movement and area we are located in, Barrio Logan, which is one of Mexican American, Indigenous, and Chicanx activism." As a queer-owned bookstore, they also focus on books that represent the bipoc queerfolk experience. Gutierrez suggests that bookstores are responsible to their communities. As such, Libélula offers "rich connections" and a "safe place for some who may not have it otherwise." Click for larger view View full resolution LIBELULA BOOKS AND COMPANY, PHOTO BY JESI GUTIERREZ BISBEE BOOKS AND MUSIC Bisbee, Arizona This small bookstore carries general books and a wide selection of titles related to Bisbee's mining past, Arizona history, the border, and, surprisingly, the paranormal. "It is theorized that the mining and the minerals and crystals in the area make it a...

This article argues that though loosely configured and encapsulating a variety of approaches, the “slow journalism” movement offers a useful set of techniques and tools for critiquing the way print and television news currently represents the US–Mexico border. Working against the sensationalism and lack of introspection in contemporary news media, slow journalism advocates champion projects that focus on developing innovative techniques for providing deeper coverage of social issues. Drawing on Borderland: Dispatches from the US–Mexico Border, a multimedia collaboration launched by National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition staff and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) in 2014, I will address the interaction between two complementary “slow” strategies: an ethnographic strategy that draws heavily on extensive interviews with individuals whose everyday lives are affected by border issues and an analytical strategy featuring visualizations created by processing large datasets related to annual seizure figures, ownership information, and demographics of border crossers Drawing on content analyses of newspapers and television programs on the US–Mexico border, in-depth interviews with staff members from NPR and the CIR, and a visual/textual analysis of the Borderland website, I hope to advance a strategy that incorporates multiple genres of journalistic coverage together in order to deepen and sharpen news’ investigative potential.

This chapter presents an analysis of territorial development at the US–Mexico border. The main question posed is: How have territorial processes and practices changed at the US–Mexico border? The main argument is that the territorial development at the US–Mexico border is framed by two territorial paradigms: on the one hand the classical approach of state/sovereignty/nation, and on the other hand a post-modern framework of state/security/mobility. The strategies of territorial development, to a great extent, have been shaped by a dialectical process of reterritorialisation and deterritorialisation manifested as a tension between economic integration and symbolic differentiation.

This chapter argues that thinking about architecture as a process and pattern of movement can help us better understand what is going on at the US–Mexico border. Instead of thinking about borders as architectural “flow spaces” that people move through, I propose we think about how nonhuman and human movements create and transform these spaces together. In particular, this chapter identifies and describes four patterns of motion at the US–Mexico border: the funnel, the cage, the current and the pool. Toward the end of the chapter, I compare the function of these patterns of the US–Mexico border to what Karl Marx calls “primitive accumulation.” They are patterns or cycles that directly displace people in order to capture and mobilize them in various ways. Elsewhere, I have called this process expansion by expulsion. I also emphasize how the US response to the coronavirus has intensified all these patterns and how the results of this intensification have been devastating for migrants and asylum seekers. A large part of border architecture now operates in a zone of national and international legal suspension.