HONDURAS & IMMIGRATION

Why are Hondurans Immigrating?

In recent years, immigration has dominated headlines in North America. Thousands of Central Americans have made their way to the U.S. southern border in caravans, and constant changes to immigration policy have made it an increasingly politicized issue.

Central American migration is nothing new. In fact, immigration numbers have dropped in half over the past decade. As you can see in this graph from Vox, the overall number of immigrants coming to the U.S. have more than halved, although now a larger portion are coming from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

What is causing so many Hondurans and Central Americans to migrate? For many, low wages, lack of jobs, and persistent poverty push them to immigrate. Over 48% of Honduras’ population lives in poverty, leaving many without the resources necessary to provide for their families and causing them to search for a better life elsewhere. But beyond economic factors, the prevalence of violence and corruption in Honduras threatens lives and livelihoods and contributes to the many people leaving behind their homes.

In recent years, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador have faced “unprecedented levels of violence.” In 2011, Honduras had a homicide rate of 86.5 per 100,000 people, making it one of the most violent places in the world. In contrast, this was 18 times higher than the homicide rate in the U.S. at the time. Though homicides in Honduras are now half of what they were in 2011, the murder rate is still significantly higher than other countries around the world.

Beyond the murder rate, crime is also commonplace in Honduras. Robbery, gang violence, extortion, and assault are daily realities for many, especially those living in Honduras’ poor urban neighborhoods. According to a Doctors without Borders survey, 57% of Honduran migrants reported that they never felt safe while at home.

According to Transparency International, corruption is the intentional misuse of public resources for personal gain. Honduras has one of the highest rates of corruption in the world, ranking in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index as 157 out of 180 countries, with a score of 24/100 (with 0 being highly corrupt and 100 being highly transparent). Over the past few years, Honduras’ Corruption Perceptions Index has gotten worse, showing Hondurans’ deteriorating confidence in political leadership and institutions.

When corruption happens in Honduras’ already weak institutions, it ends up preventing Hondurans from having access to basic services: it means that public hospitals have no medications to treat sick patients, children don’t have teachers, and government officials charged with protecting their citizens hurt them instead. Even though corruption happens at the hands of those in power, it ends up primarily hurting poor Hondurans.

When governments buy poor-quality medicine at an inflated price, it hurts the people who depend on government pharmacies. When the government doesn’t keep track of where its teachers are, it holds children back from getting a good education or achieving what they could. When public purchasing favors politically-motivated and overpriced contracts, poor Hondurans are the ones who have to pay.

The failure of the government to provide basic services ends up deepening social problems and poverty, leaving people without hope that they can improve their future.

How Can We Address Immigration?

We believe that Hondurans shouldn’t have to immigrate in order to live a life full of security, peace, and the ability to provide for their families. By addressing violence and corruption as root causes of migration, we are able to be part of constructing a better future for Honduras.

ASJ has already made progress in fighting injustice throughout Honduras through our work in investigating homicides in communities and advocating nationally against the persistence of corruption. Honduras’s homicide rate has dropped in half over the past decade. We are bringing to light more and more cases of corruption, such as the use of public funds for political purposes and high-level drug traffickers being extradited to the U.S. And since becoming the national chapter of Transparency International, ASJ has worked to evaluate government ministries and seen an average improvement of 33% in areas of purchasing, human resources, and reliability.