Audio feature: How migrant workers from El Salvador risk their lives to get to the US

The United States struggles to curb illegal immigration from Mexico, but Mexico has illegal immigration issues of its own. Many under-privileged Central Americans use Mexico as their primary gateway to the United States. In this audio feature, we hear from international relations specialist Clemencia Muñoz about transnational migration from El Salvador to Mexico. Listen now.

See the transcript after the jump.

Natalia Cote: The United States struggles to curb illegal immigration from Mexico, but Mexico has illegal immigration issues of its own. Many under-privileged Central Americans use Mexico as their primary gateway to the United States. Clemencia Muñoz, international relations specialist for the United Nations, tells us about a train linking El Salvador and the United States, passing through Mexico. Salvadorian migrants often cling on to it in an effort to get across the border.

Clemencia Muñoz: There is a train that leaves from there to Cuetzacualco that takes four days. It’s not a passenger train, it’s a carrier. People hang in there and they usually fall from the train and get killed or amputated.

Natalia Cote: El Salvador is the smallest country in Latin America, with only 6 million people and 21000 square kilometers in area. With 1/6th of its citizens living in the US, it also has the highest proportion of its population in the States out of all Latin American countries. Why do Salvadorians leave home? There have been two waves of Salvadorian migration to the U.S. First, a large influx of Salvadorians came in the 1980s, during and after the civil war. In the 80s, migrants were usually mid to upper-class, urban people. It was also a time when US immigration policies were less restrictive. The second wave, which continues to go on today, has more to do with the state of the Salvadorian economy than with politics. Lower class Salvadorians are migrating to find better opportunities in the North. Muñoz explains this economic situation:

Clemencia Muñoz: El Salvador like most of the Latin American countries is a country where the wealth is very concentrated in a couple of families and there is people with limited socio-economic opportunities who migrate to the US for economic reasons.

Natalia Cote: Muñoz argues that many Salvadorians have no choice but to leave their country.

Clemencia Muñoz: They are forced to migrate, meaning it is not a voluntary action because they are forced to migrate by economic reasons. It’s the violation of a basic survival right. No access to education, health or insurance in their own countries.

Natalia Cote: Because of these reasons, Salvadorians are often forced to go to the US. Sometimes, they can get there by legal means, but often they are forced to make the perilous journey without papers. More privileged Salvadorians who can’t get the proper documents often fly to the US on a tourist visa and stay after it has expired. The lower classes have a much harder time, with no contacts or money to help ease the process. They walk and take buses and trains through Mexico to arrive at the US-Mexico border. The train that was mentioned earlier is one very dangerous option for migrants desperate to head north. Muñoz tells us about a shelter for migrants who are left injured after clinging on to the train.

Clemencia Muñoz: I have visited a shelter by a woman who takes care of those people who are amputated, poor Central Americans. She takes care of them, she finds prostheses for them in Mexico City, and she by herself tries to return the Central American migrants once they are cured and also train them in basic  skills like computer, accounting, English, or those who can do work with their hands, because otherwise they will return to their home countries, little towns, no dignity, amputated, no money and no possibility to find a job.

Natalia Cote: There is also support for those who made it to Mexico unharmed, and are continuing their journey to the North.

Clemencia Muñoz: I also visited the shelter of the Calabrini. While interviewing the priest, he told us that people recurrently come to him, so this means people who have tried to migrate to the US often and have failed. Mexico is called “the big cementery” [sic] because people die with the hope of getting to the US and nobody ever realizes that they die.

Natalia Cote: Getting to Mexico may be a traumatizing experience, but that is often not the hardest part of the journey. Central American migrants are often stuck in Mexico because they do not have the resources to continue to the US. Muñoz tells us more about how Salvadorian migrants get by in this situation.

Clemencia Muñoz: It takes about two to three months to reach the US. I have met women who had to prostitute themselves and rely on charity on the road. There is some shelters for migrants in the Mexican border, in Guatemala. It’s very, very bad conditions, lots of hunger, lots of suffering and lots of bribery on the road. So the chances of survival are very limited and the risk of not getting to the US is very high. They are subject to all the violations of human rights possible, because they are abused, they can be incarcerated, they can be killed and no one else knows. They are bribed and there is of course the established routes, called the coyotes, who they pay money to get to the US.

Natalia Cote: For migrants stuck in Mexico, there is little chance of getting to the US, so they must adapt to their new situation.

Clemencia Muñoz: Less than 20% of those migrating through the Mexico route reach the US, so the informal statistics say. Some have also migrated as temporary workers to Mexico, for instance, there was an recent that came 2 years ago in the Cancún area, and the reconstruction was primarily done by Salvadorians as Mexicans had already migrated, and there was no working force in Cancún area.

Natalia Cote: Working conditions in Mexico are far worse than what the migrants would’ve found in the US. Minimum wage in Mexico is about $4 per day, compared to a federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour in the States. Illegal immigrants in both countries often make far less. The treatment of workers in Mexico also leaves much to be desired.

Clemencia Muñoz: The Mexicans treat Central Americans as bad as the Americans treat Mexicans. There is perhaps more abuse from the Mexican side because there is a lot of bribery, but Americans can also be very abusive. But, there is a more institutionalized force, border patrol with shelters and they have resources to ship the people back to their own country. Mexicans don’t put the people in the buses, it’s up to the consulate of the Central Americans, which are poor, to do that. So, of course there is a big difference in resources, there is a big difference in policies. Mexicans are more concerned with their people migrating to the US and being treated fair than with them doing a fair treatment to the other Central Americans.

Natalia Cote: Muñoz argues that while remittance money from migrants is fueling economic development in the region, this financial capital is coming in at the expense of human capital.

Clemencia Muñoz: It’s a tragedy for the country who is losing its people because the countries invest in their education, invest in their people, and they lose their people. You have ghost towns left behind. It’s very bad for the economy, it’s very bad for a country losing its own people and not being able to fulfill the basic needs of its own population. A lot of talents migrate, a lot of hope migrates, you’re destroying the families, you’re destroying the basic social arrangements, you’re destroying political dynamics in the populations. Of course once they get to the US they send money back to their home  countries and this has become a major flow of financing development, the most important perhaps: poor people financing poor people, where the governmets have failed, and the international aid has failed. It’s a survival strategy.

Natalia Cote: Muñoz says that governments should regulate the flow of money and deregulate the flow of migrants in order to better develop Central American countries.

Clemencia Muñoz: They have containment policies, but they should do income distribution policies, they should work harder on more equity and covering basic needs for their population, and they should renegotiate with the Americans the free trade agreements that have not necessarily been very positive for their countries.

Natalia Cote: The economic crisis in the United States has already forced many Mexican migrants to return home. How the crisis affects Central American migrants both in Mexico and in the US remains to be seen.

For the Swarthmore Migration Project, I’m Natalia Cote.

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Those who want to learn more about Central American migrants should see the 2006 documentary Asalto al sueño (Assaulted Dream), a German/Guatemalan production that takes a look at the lives of migrants trying to cross from Guatemala to Mexico. The trailer is available here.