Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2022
Migrar desde Centroamérica hasta Estados Unidos comporta un costo económico y social cada vez más elevado. Las tarifas de los polleros se han incrementado; en México los centroamericanos corren un grave riesgo de ser secuestrados, y si logran cruzar con éxito la frontera estadounidense deben permanecer escondidos para evitar ser deportados. Este artículo, fundamentado en una metodología cualitativa que incluye entrevistas en profundidad a treinta y cinco polleros que conducían centroamericanos a Estados Unidos y a cincuenta migrantes de Centroamérica, pretende dar respuesta a la siguiente pregunta: ¿por qué se arriesgan los centroamericanos a transitar por México para llegar a Estados Unidos si el costo económico es tan elevado, la probabilidad de éxito tan baja y el riesgo de sufrir agresiones de carácter grave es tan elevado? El estudio concluye que el principal impulsor de este fenómeno migratorio es el apoyo económico de los empleadores para que los centroamericanos puedan cruzar de modo subrepticio la frontera estadounidense.
The social and economic costs of migrating from Central America to the United States are increasingly higher. The rates charged by smugglers have risen; in Mexico, Central Americans run a serious risk of being kidnapped, and if they manage to successfully cross the US border, they must remain hidden to avoid deportation. This article, based on a qualitative methodology that includes in-depth interviews with thirty-five migrant smugglers who take Central Americans to the United States and fifty migrants from Central America, seeks to respond to the following question: Why do Central Americans run the risk of traveling through Mexico to reach the United States if the cost and risk of suffering serious aggression are so high, and the probability of success very low? It concludes that the driver of this phenomenon is the economic support of employers helping migrants from Central America to cross the US border.
Quiero expresar mi agradecimiento a fOMIX (Fondo Mixto de Fomento a la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica,CONACYT, Gobierno del Estadode Tamaulipas) por el apoyo recibido a través del proyecto TAMPS-2011-C35-183151: “Impacto social de la transmigración y deportación de indocumentados hacia Tamaulipas”.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.