Chain Migration

711 Words2 Pages

Unaccompanied children are migrating from Central America to the United States due to a variety of regional push and national pull factors, such as poverty, criminal violence, economic opportunity, and family reunification. These and other factors may have a large effect on a migrant, being a key determining factor on whether they will make the arduous journey to the United States or not.
One of the major push factors at play is the high amount of local scale gang violence that occurs in Central American cities. For instance, San Pedro Sula, Honduras has the world’s highest homicide rate, and sent more than 2,000 children between 1/1/14 and 5/14/14. Death threats from major gangs have also played a large role in the decision of Central Americans …show more content…

One major factor is economic and job opportunities that are available in the United States. For example, when two children were asked why they want to go to America, they responded that they wanted to work. Another major pull factor is the kinship links, which is a factor in migration that influences due to a family members success/presence, that are established in families where one member already lives in the US. Many people move to get their family back together, creating a pattern of chain migration (when someone moves along a kinship link) that in turn forms immigration waves (a large pattern of chain migration in turn forming an influx of migration). However, one of the biggest reasons children are coming is the belief that they are allowed to stay permanently without having to fear deportation. This misconception can be attributed to several different reasons. One of them is the 2008 policy that says that Central American minors can’t be deported immediately, and that they must be given a court hearing to decide whether they will be deported or allowed to stay. Another reason is that many children are put in care of family members while they wait for their hearing, which led to the creation of a rumor of the presences of “permisos” or permits to stay in the US. However, despite these rumors being dispelled by the US government, there is still some truth in them. For instance, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency prioritises the removal of criminal adults before children, and because many of these children stay with a relative while they wait for their hearing they are able to begin to have a new and improved

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