By: Melissa Schroden GLST 495: Senior Seminar Thesis Project Dr. Butenhoff

1. The Continuing Economic Effects of Guatemalan migration to the United States after U.S. involvement in Guatemala’s Civil War By: Melissa Schroden GLST 495: Senior Seminar Thesis Project Dr. Butenhoff

2. Abstract International migration in Latin America has increased substantially since the second half of the twentieth century. There are various factors that influence this type of migration. Be it for economic, social or political motives, these transnational movements change the family at its core. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the economical and social changes that affect the family looking more closely at the perspective of those who stay in the country. The consequences span from the economic advancement due to remittances to new participatory roles for women. This essay will study those effects in Guatemala as a result of its migratory history and its key location in the Central American migration processes.  

3. Thesis Statement With the current immigration laws and economic factors people are being forced to leave their home countries and travel to the United States, but with the relocation from countries such as Guatemala to the United States, there are many untold stories of intended and un-intended problems or consequences that happen within the lives of these individuals. These personal stories are important for the greater understanding of what is going on both in the United States and in Guatemala.

4. Migration to U.S. from Guatemala

5. Why migration? • variety of reasons such as: • the corrupt government, • economic strains due to it being largely an agricultural country, • violence, • and lack of opportunities for families and individuals alike.

6. Effects of Migration • Split homes • Violence within the children's lives • Social and physiological problems throughout their childhood • Parents in US have no family to rely on • Live in homes with multiple other immigrants • Do jobs in which they are over qualified • Suffer from deep depression

7. Research • Publications in English and Spanish • Interviews with migrants from Guatemala • Gender Analysis combined with Social Constructivist focus points • Looking at the changes in culture, traditions, beliefs, and motivations of those who stay behind in Guatemala – women and children • The untold stories of change due to remittances

8. Literature Review • Evaluating the economic effects of migration • Through having to take care of the house, the family, and the economic development of their futures, women are forced to locate many new strengths within themselves to survive and take care of their children while the men are gone. Women are forced to take on a nontraditional role, becoming more of a masculine member of the family • The interests that women have in common may be determined as much by their social position or their ethnic identity as by the fact that they are women (Ministry of Women's Affairs, n.d.)

9. Easterly (2001) explains that gender equity is more than both sexes being treated equally, it takes into consideration that differences in women’s and men’s lives and recognizes that different approaches may be needed to produce outcomes that are equitable. • However, through the process of understanding these concepts a few questions must be answered first. • How have the traditional labor roles been changed within the female’s lives that are left behind in Guatemala? • What affects do these changes have on the society? • And, how have those who left Guatemala been affected by the changes that took place while they were gone?

10. How have the traditional labor roles been changed within the female’s lives that are left behind in Guatemala? • Kelan – women and men in non-traditional occupations is clearly not the only example of gender being undone at work • Considerable flexibility in what is termed masculine and feminine • Manufacturing sectors • Impact of Globalization • In developing counties, greater openness to trade is generally linked to an increase in the proportion of paid workers who are female. However, this change has not been accompanied by increased job security, as more jobs are casual, temporary, and flexible in nature (Angeles & Hill, 2009) (Caballeros, 2010) (Fontana & Rodgers, 2005) (Kelan, 2010).

11. Short and Long Term Effects • The short-term gender effects of this will be on bargaining power within the household, but the longer-term effects on the woman’s access to the labor market may be much more serious, especially if she finds herself on her own later in life (Himmelweit, 2002). • “In searching for ways to improve economic performance and growth, many governments have begun to perceive that a range of what were previously considered social issues, such as child care and the unequal employment opportunities of women, are vital to any strategy of increasing employment and productivity” (Himmelweit, 2002).

12. What affects do these changes have on the society? • Gender inequalities are observable in several aspects of economic life as Angels and Hill (2009) state employment segregation in the labor market, division of labor between paid and unpaid work, distribution of resources within households, and access to public services. Women are often more likely to be malnourished, less educated and overworked relative to men. They are more vulnerable to fall into, and remain in poverty than men; due to this once the man of the house leaves the women’s role within the nuclear family also changes.

13. Guatemala and its painful 36 year Civil War The starting point to massive migration

14. Guatemala • Guatemala, like many of the countries in Central America, • the political instability, • low employment opportunities, • the high levels of violence and delinquency, • natural catastrophes, • and other economic problems. • According to official figures, 52 percent of Guatemala’s 13.3 million people live in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty (UNIECF, 2010). • Of the 52 percent living in poverty, 79 percent of these people are indigenous (UNIECF, 2010). • Malnutrition, poor education, and poor housing are a few of the main problems that plague much of the country today (UNIECF, 2010).

15. It is estimated that every year between 6,000 and 12,000 Guatemalans cross the border between Mexico and the United States (Smith, 2006). • close to one million Guatemalans reside in the United States, either under legal or illegal status (Lipsica & Makinen, 2010).

16. Tendencies of migrants in Guatemala • large amounts of agricultural work available throughout Latin America • Guatemala decided to open itself up to modernization and transform itself economically to a capitalist economy later than many other Latin American countries (Koser, 2007). • the redistribution of its land

17. Civil Wars Impact • 1960-1996 • Human rights violations forced many to leave as refuges to Mexico, Canada, and the United States • Biggest hit = murder of Jacob Abernz (1954) • First president elected through democratic practices • Tried to make the agricultural reform reality Problems were • United Fruit Company (2% owning 70% of the land) • US and the cold war mentality decided that Guatemala was Communist in nature (President Eisenhower)

18. Those 80 years were of extreme violence inflicted on by the U.S. CIA and the Guatemalan government, and forced thousands of Guatemalans to migrate as refuges; these were the consequences to the political constraints on the people, selective assignations, collective assignations, forced disappearances, massacres, and complete destruction of many communities (Roberts, 2010). • Olmos showed this clearly, “the armed conflicts caused a strong wave of migration to the North and a considerable amount of people migrating as political refuges” (Olmos, 2003). • These kinds of population movement are most damaging to the families that are in the lower economic classes and are a part of the indigenous groups within Guatemala. • In total it is estimated that 400,000 Guatemalans left the country (Smith, 2006). • However once the country calmed down in 1996, a significant number of Guatemalans returned to their home land.

19. Who are the Guatemalan immigrants? Table 1 Emigration, 2010 Stock of emigrants:   87.9 thousand Stock of emigrants as % of population: 6.10%   Top Destination Countries: the United States, Mexico, Belize, Canada, El Salvador, Spain, Costa Rica, Honduras, France, Nicaragua Skilled emigration, 2010 Emigration rate of tertiary-educated population: 24.20% Emigration of physicians:  606 or 5.6% of physicians trained in Guatemala Immigration, 2010 Stock of immigrants: 59.5 thousand   Stock of immigrants as a % of population: 0.4% Female as % of immigrants: 54.4%   Refuges as percentage of immigrants: 0.6% • Information obtained through migration and remittances fact book 2011

20. Table 2 Guatemala     Lower Middle Income Level Population (Millions 2009) 14 Population Growth (average annual 5 2000-09) 2.5 Population Density (people per km2, 2008) 126.1 Labor force (millions, 2008) 4.9 Unemployment Rate (% of labor force, 2008) ----------- Urban population (% of population, 2009) 49 Surface Area (1,000 km2, 2008) 108.9 GNI (US$ Billions, 2009) 35.6 GNI Per capita (US$, 2009) 2,620 GDP growth (average annual %, 2005-2009) 3.9 Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Line   (% of population, 2005) 13.1 Average dependency Ratio (2009)    86.1 • *Information obtained from Migration and Remittances Fact book 2011

21. Who they are • The majority of these people cross the border from Mexico to the United States reside in • Los Angeles with 32.3 %, • New York with 10.2%, and • Miami with 7.8% (International Organization for Migration, 2003). • The majority (70%) of the people who cross the border are between the ages of 15 and 29 years old. • 53.8% elementary levels of education (International Organization for Migration, 2003).

22. The new model of the transnational Guatemalan family • The very roots of the Guatemalan family have been ever changed due to the migration patterns today. • The changes have been enormous enough to require a new conceptual definition of family life in Guatemala. • transnational family, has recently been born due to the massive amounts of transnational migration taking place; it is described as, a phenomenon that the migrants maintain and promote relations in the country of their new residence, their native home land, and local communities (Bhagwati, 2007)

23. Foner (2009) completely and specifically through these tendencies through higher levels being in their private and personal lives, explained as a family that has immediate family members living in multiple countries simultaneously and they maintain communication and feel like a united family, they have exchanges of money and services leaving them with a circulating physical presence.

24. The economic implications due to migration • The remittances can be defined as “transfers of money or the amount of accumulated money that the individual immigrants send back to their countries of origin” (Collier, 2007). • 2008 estimated $283 billion in remittances • 2004 Guatemala was the country who received the largest portion of remittances in Central America – 3.700 million dollars- which represents 12% of its GDP

27. Remittances in Guatemala • they are sending back enough money to build houses, educate their children, and in some cases build businesses for their return (De La Torre, 2009) • their responsibility as well to work and send remittances back to the rest of the family members in Guatemala to build the houses, businesses, and other forms of physical capital, thus increasing the quantity of remittances sent to Guatemala (Hagan, 1994).

28. Exchange Rate Differences • Because Guatemala is a developing country and they do not have a stable currency, they must pay very close attention to the rate of the day • rates (for 3/1/2011) are $1 US = 8.06050 Q GUATE, or 1Q= $0.124062 (XE, 2010).

29. Social Remittances • in reference to the changes within the social society of those who are left behind in Guatemala. • include the grouping of ideas, cultures, education, and practices that come from the destination country to the country of origin • more specifically defined as the changes within the performances and adaptations within the family and community in Guatemala, starting with their homes, the food they consume, their relationships in general, technology, work, and the cultural changes in what they eat, music, clothing, rituals, and changes in the forms of social organizations, political, and the practice of democracy and justice (Levitt, 1998)

30. Conclusion • the waves of migration are directly related to the economic, political, and social events that have taken place throughout the history of Guatemala, and continue to impact their ways of life. • Through these opportunities of migration the people are able to help their families by sending large quantities of money back as remittances. • helping the family advance both socially and economically through having physical capital; • GNI and personal wealth goes up in Guatemala