Think Creative - Issue 6

why migrants risk it all

Edwin Mejía, a social worker in San Salvador, El Salvador, leads a conflict prevention workshop. Mejía found his passion for his profession after his own experiences with a gang, incarceration and migration.

Above: Otilia (center) was forced to abandon her home in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador after a gang threatened her if she didn’t pay a huge sum of money.

Figure 2: Migration and victimization in Guatemala City and Totonicapán, Guatemala Municipality

Fleeing victimization In the survey of high-migration municipalities, more than half of respondents who intend to migrate reported having been a victim of crime. Nearly a quarter said they’ve had a close friend or relative murdered. To understand how crime and violence contrib- ute to migration on a deeper level, Creative’s study looked more closely at these individual experiences of victimization in the region. It took into account exposure to homicide, as well as robberies, extortion, bribery and violence against women. Creative’s study found that these crimes shape migration decisions differently across the three countries and even municipalities within the same country. While being a victim of extortion may spike a person’s likelihood of migration in one municipality, in another

municipality a different type of crime may more acutely affect residents. At a regional level, having been robbed on the street was found to be a clearer determining factor in a decision to migrate than exposure to homicide. This can be seen in El Salvador, where 50 percent of respondents who have considered migrating said they have been robbed, while 29 percent of those who have not considered migrating said the same. “We knowmany of these municipalities’ populations are highly victimized. But we can’t assume that specific exposure to crime and violence resonates the same way across the region,” says Enrique Roig, Director of Cre- ative’s Citizen Security Practice Area. “These distinctions are crucial if crime and violence prevention programs are to address the root causes of migration.”

Intends to migrate and has been exposed to at least two acts of crime or violence

Guatemala City, Guatemala

57%

Totonicapán, Guatemala

50%

In the municipality of Apopa, outside the cap- ital of San Salvador, 22-year-old Alberto is still shaken from the nine murders that recently oc- curred in the span of a single week. He doesn’t want his 2-year-old daughter, or his 8-year-old sister, to grow up with violence as an everyday occurrence. Alberto attempted to reach the

Victimization at a glance

1.5x Having been a victim of a crime or having a family member or someone close to them who has been makes individuals 1.5 times more  likely to consider migrating 

61 % of those who have

considered migrating from Honduras have been robbed on the street compared to 39% who haven’t considered migrating but have been robbed 

Being exposed to crime differentiates those who intend  to migrate from those

In San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Luisa and Alberto fear extortion and violence from area gangs. They were one of many families that joined a caravan heading for the U.S. in 2018.

who do not. See the differences in Figure 2. 

18 | Think Creative | Fall 2019