A woman feeds chickens as part of a
diaspora investment project in Verapaz,
El Salvador.
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 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 [Mexic o] 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.
Apples and Poultry
Courtesy of Andrew Wainer
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 Campesino (FDC or Farmers’
Democratic Front), an organization that represents 5,000 small and
medium-sized farmers in the state, and the Vista Hermosa Foundation—the charitable arm of a sizeable orchard in Washington state,
most of whose workers come from Mexico.
“It was such a natural fit for us as apple farmers to be working
with these farmers in Mexico who were living well below the poverty line,” said Suzanne Broetje, Vista Hermosa’s executive director
and a Bread board member. “[They were] caught up in losing their
land and migrating north in search of work.”
CRS and Vista Hermosa support technical assistance for the apple
farmers, some of it provided by people from the area who have years of
experience in U.S. orchards. Mexican apple growers are learning strate36 Essay 6
n
Bread for the World Institute