Remittances are funds sent by foreign workers to their families back in their home countries.
A recent article in Spain’s El País (which has good Latin American coverage) takes a look at “the hidden costs of remittances to Guatemala.”
Many Guatemalans want to go to the U.S. because they can make more money here than in their own country and they can send much of their earnings to family back home.
El País describes the phenomenon of remittance houses in Guatemala as follows (my translation):
Throughout the length and breadth of Guatemala, there are various large and well-constructed houses which stand out in the neighborhood. They are known locally as ‘remittance houses’ and are financed in great measure by the contributions of relatives who have traveled in an irregular manner to the north to work.
On the one hand, these luxurious constructions function as a symbol of greater status in comparison with other houses of the neighborhood which are much more modest. On the other hand, they reinforce the belief of many Guatemalans of rural zones that traveling to the United States is the only viable way to generate lasting generational wealth.
Guatemala as a whole has come to depend on remittances. According to the World Bank, remittances formed a whopping 19.5% of Guatemala’s entire Gross Domestic Product in 2023.
But there are many downsides.
There are the perils of the journey across Mexico to the U.S.
There is also family separation, principally of fathers who lose time with their children.
These are the “hidden costs” of remittances mentioned in the article.
“Not all Guatemalans consider migration as the only way to achieve a certain level of prosperity,” El País says.
The article features a couple of Guatemalans who learned that the hard way.
Marcos went to the U.S. in 1999 seeking long-term employment. But in recounting the journey, he reports, “The coyotes (people smugglers) just wanted money. Those who couldn’t keep up were abandoned in the desert.”
After arriving to the U.S., Marcos went to work on a chicken farm which was harmful to his health: “I damaged my lungs, I got sick and had to return.”
“I had to return to my country because I had no other place to go,” Marcos concluded.
Marcos went back to Guatemala where he now raises avocados in the mountains, and he likes his schedule better: “Here, if I want I can work for three hours and rest, nobody is after me, checking up on me. There, on the contrary, it’s as if I we were never permitted to stop.”
Isaías went to the U.S. in 2015: “What I remember of that trip is everything I had to endure: hunger, thirst, walking until my feet hurt. One manages to get to the U.S., but almost dead.”
Isaías left behind his wife and an 8-month-old son, and didn’t return for 6 years.
When he did return, his son hardly knew him: “At the beginning he rejected me, because I was a stranger to him.”
It took several years for his son to view him as a father figure.
Isaías has decided to stay in Guatemala: “My new dream is to work here so that my son can grow up in his own country, knowing that we can have a good life without having to go abroad. It makes me feel very proud to say that we can forge a future here, producing what is necessary without having to emigrate.”
Years ago, while residing in Mexico, I arrived at a similar conclusion as this El País article.
Guatemala, Mexico, and many other countries have become addicted to mass emigration.
It brings remittance money to their countries, but at what cost?
They use remittances as a substitute for real economic development that could help their nations.
These countries need some tough love.
We need to help them by closing our gates to mass immigration, thus providing a strong incentive for them to improve their own countries.
That would be better both for us and for them.
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