Immigration Through My Eyes

I’ve been in Guatemala for about a year and a half now.  Yet, I still don’t know what it’s like to be Guatemalan.  I know only what it’s like to be a white girl in a small indigenous village.  I could live here my whole life and I would still never be able to tell you how it is to be Guatemalan.

Still, my perspective has changed.  I’m not the same person who left the States 18 months ago.  The following quote has decorated my desktop for sometime because it rings so true:

“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere.  That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”

-Miriam Adeney

I will never be completely home again not only because I will miss those whom I have come to love so dearly here in Guatemala, but because my perspective has changed.   I spent the first 21-years of my life in lily-white suburbia, but have now created a home and a life in Latin America.  My views on many issues will never again be seen through the simple lens of my own upbringing.

That’s because I care about Guatemala.  I don’t always like it, but I always care about it.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the heart-wrenching news of child immigrants, crossing the border without parents, was not only important to me, but also headline news in America.  Though I may not completely understand either side’s view, my US Citizenship and time in Guatemala has given me a unique perspective on this issue.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t given me any answers, but I thought it would be worthwhile to share with you my thoughts.

Parents in Guatemala want the best for their children, just like parents in the United States.  So, what a twisted world it is when a parent believes their child is better off without them in a foreign country than she is at home.  I don’t think I could ever bring myself to make this same decision, but I am also certain that I would never raise my child in Guatemala, particularly a daughter.  So, my unanswerable question is, “After seeing the realities of childhood in Guatemala, how can I blame parents for looking out for their children the best way they know how?”

Unfortunately, this is the best way many parents know how to take care of their children.  One of the earliest and most disturbing things I learned about Guatemala is that success here is defined by going to America.  When you ask children what they want to do when they get older, it is not unusual to hear them say they want to go to America.  It is much more unusual to hear that they want to move to the city to get a job, or be a doctor, or continue their education past high school.  It’s as if the whole country has given up on itself.  The only way they see to provide for their family and make something of themselves is to leave Guatemala.

The widespread desire to immigrate to the US, either legally or illegally, exists despite the well-known danger of the journey.  It’s not unusual for a Guatemalan to leave for the States and never be heard from again.  It is a hazardous trip, but one many feel they must make in order to make their life count. 

Those who do make it to the States send back money, which essentially supports the Guatemalan economy.  They stay for as long as they can, because, if they are illegal, once they leave they must make the very perilous journey again if they wish to go back to the US.  For this reason, there are many father-less families in my small village, even teenagers who have never met their father because he has been in the US their whole life.

To make matters worse for Guatemala, the US makes it a priority to send back the illegal immigrant criminals.  Gang members and drug lords return to a country with low literacy rates, ineffective law enforcement, high unemployment, and many father-less children.  I understand that the US can not be the world’s policeman and the world’s warden, but by sending the worst criminals back to unstable countries while keeping many of the same country’s most hard-working and educated citizens, we are truly preventing any nation from “developing”.  (If you know English in Guatemala, chances are that you are fairly well educated.)

Like I said, living in Guatemala hasn’t provided any answers.  If anything, it’s made the whole debate about what the US should be doing right now more confusing.  However, it is clear that in the long run the real way to reduce immigration is to help make Mexico and Central American countries ones that their citizens want to stay in.

It’s a dark day in Guatemala.  Last year, the country celebrated the conviction of Rios Montt, the first leader to be convicted of genocide in his own country.  However, the ruling was quickly overturned for procedural reasons.  This May, the Guatemalan Congress passed a resolution denying the occurrence of genocide in their country.  These events weigh heavily on a country still recovering from a 36-year-long civil war.  The cruelty of the war, which ended in 1996, left a legacy of violence, directly contributing to many of the country’s current problems.

Sex slavery, drug routes, rape culture, murder with impunity, inadequate educational institutions, and the inequitable fruit and coffee industries are just some of the reasons I would not want my children to live in Guatemala.  All of these things have worsened over the past few years in a country that is only a three-hour flight from Miami.  Those of us in Guatemala are not surprised to see people leaving in increasing numbers and if more Americans knew what was happening here, they wouldn’t be surprised either.

Yet, the US can not play babysitter to thousands and thousands of parent-less immigrant children.

So, as we search for solutions, I ask only that you learn about why people are making what has to be one of the toughest decisions of their life – sending their children on a dangerous journey to a different country.  Secondly, consider how immigration policy in the US affects these Latin American countries.  In the end, their problems are truly our problems because their citizens will continue to risk everything to leave until there is opportunity at home.