Why they migrate north

In the Crossfire: Mesoamerican Migrants Journey North
By Miguel Pickard

Human migration is as old as the human condition itself, but rarely before have emigrants suffered so many hardships and perils in their journey. Throughout Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) emigrants are in the crossfire.
In their home countries economic policy has failed to create needed jobs. Quite the opposite: in the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors jobs are disappearing faster than new ones are created. En route and in the receiving countries, migrants face contempt, discrimination, extortion, xenophobia, persecution, abuse, and even death. 
To reverse the flow of poor migrants, an alternative economic program is needed that emphasizes economic growth, the domestic market, and the national priorities of poor countries. Without major changes, the coming decades will bring increasingly unstoppable displacement of the uprooted poor of the South, marching toward the prosperous citadels of the North.

See full article online at:
http://www.americaspolicy.org/reports/2005/0503migrants.html
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