Think Creative - Issue 6

why migrants risk it all

Dariana, 18, hopes to be able to reach the U.S. with her partner and 5-year-old daughter and support her mother in Corozal, a coastal community in La Ceiba, Honduras.

David, 23, seen here volunteering as a youth soccer coach in Soyapango, El Salvador, applied for asylum upon reaching the U.S. border in 2018 but was denied and deported.

Youth migration Across the Northern Triangle, Creative’s study shows that youth are hardest hit by the factors that influence migration. Survey respondents ages 18 to 29 were more than twice as like- ly to consider migrating than adults 30 and older. Regionally, 37 percent of youth from high-migration municipalities intend to mi- grate, compared to 20 percent of older adults. The factors that influence migration can have a unique impact on youth compared to older people. Unemployment, for example, seems to be a more significant driver of youth migration. In Guatemala, 18 percent of young men who have considered migrating are unemployed,

compared to just 2 percent who say they have not considered migrating but are unemployed. And youth who have considered migrating report higher exposure to victimization factors than older adults. Fifty-eight percent of youth in El Salvador who have thought about migrat- ing have been robbed. “Young people in the Northern Triangle are grappling with many of the same issues as adults, sometimes to an even greater extent,” says Creative’s Eliza Chard, Senior Project Manager for Workforce Development and Youth. “With little opportunity and high inse- curity, many youth see no way to move toward

their goals and realize their potential without leaving their home communities.” Adonay tells the story of his journey fromEl Salvador to California. Just a teenager at the time, he was living with his father outside of San Salvador when a gang member came to Adonay’s house, armed and threatening him. He fled to an aunt’s home and from there went to the United States, where he joined another relative in Los Angeles. “They’ve said that if I go back, I could end up dead on the street. I can’t visit my dad or my brothers,” Adonay says. “I knowmany people who have left the country because of the same situation that we were living in.” Adonay, now 23, lived and worked in California for five years before he was deported. He left behind a son, now 2, who lives with his mother in Los Angeles. Back in El Salvador, Adonay says he felt stifled by a lack of opportunity.

Figure 3: Percent of youth who plan to migrate 

Country

Young men

Young women 

El Salvador

44.6%

30.0% 

Guatemala 

31.7%

22.6%  51.3% 

Honduras

40.7%

Figure 4: Regionally, unemployment is higher among youth who plan to migrate than among those who do not plan to migrate

EL SALVADOR

GUATEMALA

HONDURAS

Plans to migrate & unemployed

No plans to migrate & unemployed

Plans to migrate & unemployed

No plans to migrate & unemployed

Plans to migrate & unemployed

No plans to migrate & unemployed

Young men

20%

10.4%

18.4%

2.2%

23.6%

18.4%

Young women

18.5%

1.9%

11.5%

8.6%

8.3%

4.2%

Youth at a glance

3x For Guatemalans who intend to migrate, unemployment is 3 times higher among youth than adults

46 % of Honduran youth intend to migrate compared to 28% of adults

2x Youth ages 18 to 29 years old are more than twice as likely to consider migrating

22 | Think Creative | Fall 2019