Development Works Number 3, July 2012 | страница 3

Richard Leonardi/Bread fo rthe World

workers have less control over their working conditions and
schedules than other workers. They run the risk of being detained and deported if their worksite comes under scrutiny
or they are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They cannot leave the country for any reason—the death
of a parent, a child’s serious illness—without gambling on
whether they will be able to return safely.
Despite all of this, illegal immigrants view migrating to
the United States as the best option they have. They are not
so much going to a place as they are escaping from a place.
Generally, unauthorized immigration is prompted by poverty and the lack of opportunities to earn a living either at
home or in a nearby city. Unless conditions at home change,
most of the difficult decisions to migrate to the United
States will not change either. One way for U.S. immigration policy to address this issue is through development assistance, which can offer a cost-effective, humane response.

individual children and their families, but on the future of
the country. Malnutrition in early childhood—particularly
before age 2—causes lifelong damage that is reflected in a
person’s health, educational achievements, and even lifetime earnings.
Parents whose children aren’t getting enough to eat are
generally searching intensively for ways to earn enough
money for food. Chuck Barrett works on economic development in Mexico for Catholic Relief Services (CRS). He
talks about immigration without mincing words: “[Immigration is caused by] the devastation in the rural economy
in Mexico. To work in [Mexico] without thinking about
this link would be turning away from the face of reality.”
In interviews conducted by Bread for the World Institute,
other specialists working in-country concurred with Barrett’s assessment.
Development agencies are actually just beginning to recognize that their programs in Mexico and Central America
could be designed to help ease migration pressures. There
are, however, at least a handful of models that show how
these programs could work.

“The Face of Reality”
Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are considered “lower middle-income” countries, meaning that
their annual income per person falls between approximately
$1,000 and $4,000. The problem of poverty is complicated
by severe economic inequality in all four countries, particularly in the rural areas that are home to most people who
migrate to the United States. This is why it’s important to
put average income statistics in context. Simply stating that
a given country has an average income of $2,500 masks the
numbers used to arrive at this figure. Was the figure calculated by combining one person’s income of $16,000 with 14
other people’s incomes of less than $1,500? Or with income
levels that are more equal than this? Less equal than this?
In San Marcos, a poor region of Guatemala that borders Mexico, the top 1 percent of the population owns close
to half (47 percent) of the land, while 85 percent of the
population lives in poverty. Low incomes combined with
inequality on this scale are a recipe for hunger and malnutrition. The number of malnourished people in Guatemala more than doubled between 1990 and 2008. In 2009,
nearly half of all children under 5 were malnourished, a
situation that will have a devastating impact not only on

78

Apples and Poultry
In the village of Avila Camacho, Mexico—about 200 miles
south of El Paso, TX, in the state of Chihuahua—CRS is
working with several partners to help apple growers increase
their incomes. The partners include the Frente Democrático

:

About
percent
the percentage of Guatemala’s
indigenous children who are
stunted (a sign of long-term
malnutrition).
3

More than 6

times as high:

the rate of stunting among children
in the poorest 20 percent of
Salvadorans, compared to children
in the richest 20 percent.