Apr 05, 2022 Sarah Bermeo, David Leblang and Gabriela Nagle Alverio Rural poverty, climate change, and family migration from Guatemala David Leblang, Director of the Batten School’s Global Policy Center, along with co-authors, researches the root causes of migration from Guatemala. Annual apprehensions of people from Guatemala arriving in family units at the U.S. southern border grew exponentially between 2012 and 2019—from just 340 to a whopping 185,134 (Figure 1). As a proportion of total Guatemalan apprehensions, those apprehended as family units grew from less than 5 percent to 70 percent in the same period. This increase happened before the pandemic, before the 2020 hurricanes that devastated parts of Central America, and before President Biden was elected. The underlying conditions driving migration predate these events and still exist today and—without an adequate policy response—seem set to continue. Family migration from Guatemala to the U.S. is associated with rural poverty and agricultural stress linked to climate change, as we show in our new policy brief. Using data on apprehensions at the U.S. border, we explore the subnational areas of greatest out-migration from Guatemala. Increasing agricultural resilience to climate change, tackling rural poverty, and improving internal migration options will be the main components for providing viable domestic alternatives for Guatemalans who currently view migration as a necessity. UNCHANGING POVERTY, CHANGING CLIMATE Almost half of all people in Guatemala live in poverty and, the poverty rate rises to nearly 80 percent for indigenous people, who make up more than 40 percent of the country’s population. Guatemala has the highest levels of childhood stunting in Latin America and the sixth highest in the world, with rates in rural and indigenous communities more than 50 percent higher than national averages. Frequent droughts linked to climate change in the Dry Corridor have significantly affected the agriculture sector, which employs one-third of Guatemalan workers. Read Full Post in Brookings David Leblang David Leblang is a professor of public policy at the Batten School, the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, and the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at UVA's Miller Center. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets. Read full bio Sarah Bermeo Gabriela Nagle Alverio Related Content David Leblang Labor Market Policy as Immigration Control: The Case of Temporary Protected Status Research Controlling immigration has become a central political goal in advanced democracies. Politicians across the world have experimented with a range of policies such as foreign aid in the hopes that aid will spur development in migrant origin countries and decrease the demand for emigration. We argue that internal policy tools are more effective, in particular, the use of policies that allow temporary migrants short-term access to host country labor markets. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in complex humanitarian crises Research Over 168 million people across 50 countries are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. Response to epidemics in complex humanitarian crises— such as the recent cholera epidemic in Yemen and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo— is a global health challenge of increasing scale. The thousands of Yemeni and Congolese who have died in these years-long epidemics demonstrate the difficulty of combatting even well-known pathogens in humanitarian settings. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may represent a still greater threat to those in complex humanitarian crises, which lack the infrastructure, support, and health systems to mount a comprehensive response. Leblang: How resettling Afghan refugees might help Afghanistan’s future News In an article for The Washington Post, Batten's David Leblang and co-author Margaret Peters explain how migrants help their home countries by building trade ties and by sending back both cash and political knowledge. Climate, Violence, and Honduran Migration to the United States News Migration from Honduras to the U.S. has been growing for years. New research by Batten's David Leblang, director of the Global Policy Center, and Duke University's Sarah Bermeo suggests the movement is a result of persistent violence coupled with food insecurity linked to climate change. Leblang and Bermeo wrote about their findings in a blog for Brookings. Stay Up To Date with the Latest Batten News and Events Subscribe
David Leblang David Leblang is a professor of public policy at the Batten School, the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, and the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at UVA's Miller Center. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets. Read full bio
Labor Market Policy as Immigration Control: The Case of Temporary Protected Status Research Controlling immigration has become a central political goal in advanced democracies. Politicians across the world have experimented with a range of policies such as foreign aid in the hopes that aid will spur development in migrant origin countries and decrease the demand for emigration. We argue that internal policy tools are more effective, in particular, the use of policies that allow temporary migrants short-term access to host country labor markets.
Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in complex humanitarian crises Research Over 168 million people across 50 countries are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2020. Response to epidemics in complex humanitarian crises— such as the recent cholera epidemic in Yemen and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo— is a global health challenge of increasing scale. The thousands of Yemeni and Congolese who have died in these years-long epidemics demonstrate the difficulty of combatting even well-known pathogens in humanitarian settings. The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may represent a still greater threat to those in complex humanitarian crises, which lack the infrastructure, support, and health systems to mount a comprehensive response.
Leblang: How resettling Afghan refugees might help Afghanistan’s future News In an article for The Washington Post, Batten's David Leblang and co-author Margaret Peters explain how migrants help their home countries by building trade ties and by sending back both cash and political knowledge.
Climate, Violence, and Honduran Migration to the United States News Migration from Honduras to the U.S. has been growing for years. New research by Batten's David Leblang, director of the Global Policy Center, and Duke University's Sarah Bermeo suggests the movement is a result of persistent violence coupled with food insecurity linked to climate change. Leblang and Bermeo wrote about their findings in a blog for Brookings.