Calero Mejia, 1

Sofia A. Calero Mejia

UWP 001 – Winter 19
Research Paper
March 17th, 2019

Violence and Poverty: The Two Main Causes Pushing Citizens from The Northern

Triangle to Leave their Country.

Abstract

The Northern Triangle of Central America is formed by the three Central American

countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Although migration has always been a

phenomenon in these three countries, the citizens adopted caravans in late 2018 as a new form of

migrating to the United States. I interviewed a journalist who is from one of the three countries,

and has a wide knowledge of the topic to explore the causes of this group migration. In this

research paper, I discuss the different causes leading citizens to abandon their country in look for

Asylum in the United States, and the new form of migration adopted to get to their destination:

The United States. The results obtained in my primary research show violence as the main cause

of migration in this region.

Keywords: Northern triangle; Central America; El Salvador; Honduras; Guatemala; caravan;

asylum.

Introduction

Migration is a phenomenon that many citizens, especially from developing/ third world

countries, adopt to better their economic opportunities. The so called Northern Triangle of Central

America is the name by which the three Central American countries –Guatemala, Honduras and
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El Salvador– are known. These three countries are identified as developing/ third world countries,

with high levels of income inequality and high crime rates. El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala

are placed in the top 10 “Intentional Homicides” ranking in the world (Index Mundi). Crime levels,

on hand with poverty are known as the two main causes of migration from the three countries.

Because of the high levels of income inequality, and furthermore the high crime rates, migration

became an issue on the rise for the three Central American countries. In the last four decades,

migration rates from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala have increased (Rosenblum, 2011).

In the 1970s, the estimate of immigrants from the Northern triangle was 1 million compared to 14

million now days (Rosenblum, 2011). Citizens have adopted a way of migration called caravans.

Caravans are large groups of people traveling together to reach a specific destination. In this

research, I studied the main causes why citizens from the Northern triangle leave their countries,

as well as why they adopt caravans to reach their specific destination: The United States.

Literature review

The United States is one of the most popular destinations of migrants from different

countries around the globe, especially from Central America. Central America is divided in 7

countries. Out of the 7 countries, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are located in the north

side which borders with Mexico. Women and children from the three countries represent the

majority of the people of the caravan that arrived at the southwest border in Mexico in late October

2018 which put the three countries in the eye of the world (Greenberg, 2018). A following

descriptions of each country exposes possible reasons for migration, and whether these people are

more verge of immigrants or refugees.

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El Salvador, the smallest Central American country, has a population of 6.2 million people

(Greenberg, 2018). Even though the Salvadoran state reports a 2 percent economic growth

annually, about 40 percent of the Salvadoran population lives in poverty (Greenberg, 2018). El

Salvador was ranked number 1 in the top 10 countries that have most intentional homicides with

a value of 108.60 homicides per 100,000 people in 2015 (index mundi). Crime became a bigger

issue in the Salvadoran state after the civil war ended in 1992. About 40 to 50 percent of the

population decided to not use public transportation for fear of being victims of crime (Greenberg,

2018). Another 40 percent expressed the desire of fleeing the country due to security concerns

(Greenberg, 2018).

Honduras is considered the poorest country of Central America. It has a population of 9.1

million citizens last recorded on July 2018 (CIA 2019). A 66 percent of population in Honduras

was living in poverty in 2016; about one out of five Hondurans lived in extreme poverty (The

World Bank 2019). Beside poverty, crime rate is another massive problem affecting the

population, especially those who are on the verge of extreme poverty. The Honduran state is

considered the second most violent nations in the world after El Salvador (Greenberg, 2018). In

2015, Honduras had a value of 63.80 homicides per 100,000 people in the rank of intentional

homicides (index mundi). Also, about one third of the population have considered emigrating for

security issues (Greenberg, 2018).

Guatemala is the third country that constitutes the Northern triangle. This state has a

population of 15.5 million people. It is the most populated country of Central America. About 60

percent of the population in Guatemala lives under the poverty line. For this country, violent gangs
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and drug trafficking are threating security of the population. It is ranked number 10 in the

Intentional Homicides ranking with a value of 31.20 in 2014 (index mundi). The Guatemalan state

is not as violent as the other two, and only 17 percent of the population reported considering

migration for security reasons.

All the data provided above shows that these three countries suffer from two major issues that are

causing its citizens to migrate: poverty and crime. In the Caravan that departed in October 2018,

most of the citizens claimed to be from Honduras, and El Salvador which are the two most violent

countries in the globe.

Study Focus and Research Question

Migration is a large phenomenon that is constantly studied by many researchers around the

globe. My study focuses in the migration causes from the three Central American countries to the

United states, also known as the Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Using

the data collected through the interview of a migrant journalist, I studied the two main causes of

migration from the Northern triangle. The research question I developed as a guide for the research

paper is the following:

According to a journalist from Univision (Fresno - CA), what are the main causes for

immigration from the so called northern triangle of Central America to the United States?

Methodology

My primary research took place in Fresno, California. Fatima, who is the video-journalist

I interviewed, resides in the city of Fresno. The station she works for is also located there. She
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works for a medium market station. Fatima won an Emmy Award in 2016, as well as a Golden

Mike Award in 2018. She emigrated from El Salvador when she was 25 years old, with a degree

in communications from a well-known, private Salvadoran university. She emigrated for better

economic opportunities. She has been working for Univision Inc. for 4 years now. I chose to

interview Fatima because she comes from one of the three countries that compose the Northern

Triangle. She grew up in El Salvador and, as many Salvadorans, decided to move to the United

States due to economic reasons. I believe she is an important participant because she is an

immigrant herself.

Participants and Data Collection

For this research paper, I interviewed a journalist who works for the news network

Univision Inc. Fatima is a Salvadoran video-journalist (VJ) from the Univision station located in

Fresno, California. As a VJ of a Spanish Speaking news network, she had a lot of contact with

migrants, and is also exposed to what happens around the globe. Her job is to maintain informed

the Spanish speaking population of Fresno, and its surroundings by delivering information on what

happens in the community but also in Latin America.

When contacting Fatima, she assured me she has been following the journey of the

caravans. She shared with me what is liked to live in a country considered the most violent nation

in the world, as well as fearing for her friends and family member’s lives. She expressed that many

of the migrants from the caravans are considered refugees as Univision have reported by

interviewing immigration experts.

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Analysis Procedures

After the interview, I went through all the notes I took, and looked for repetitive patterns.

I found that she used the word “refugees” all the time during the interview when referring to the

people from the caravan. Also, many of her answer were validated by the secondary research I

used in this project such as the three countries being the most violent ones in the globe, and that

these countries are very poor, especially Honduras. After reading the data collected several times,

I realized that many of the interview questions lead the next question when she was answering.

For some questions, the interviewee answered them before getting to the specific question. She

was able to answer all the question, and the interview took a 50 minutes time period.

Results and Discussion

In this section I present the results and discussion of my research project lead by research

question. Fatima, the interviewee was asked to answer a series of question about herself which

lead into the question for the research paper. The question can be found in Appendix A. After

answering the three first question related to the immigration issue and the caravan, I noticed the

interviewee never used the term “immigrants” to describe people from the caravans. She pointed

out that all these citizens are considered, and have been level as “refugees” by all the media already

regardless what the United States government states. She explained that most people have a history

of violence and threats they are fleeing from. Also, Fatima shared that caravans leave Central

American countries all the time but this caravan had a lot of coverage on the news due to its size

(around 5,000 citizens), and the polemic that caused for the actual US government. The results of

the interview connected to data of the literature review on the two main causes of why people from
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the caravan left their country. Although better economic opportunities are always a huge reason of

migration, the increased of violence and high crime rates in the three countries is what is pushing

Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans to come to the United States stated Fatima.

Conclusion

The interview with the journalist revealed a connection between high crime levels and

immigration, like many international newspapers have reported along with citizen’s testimonies.

When asking Fatima what were the reasons of these citizens leaving their country, she

automatically used the word “fleeing”. She considerers the citizens that formed the caravans to be

refugees. “This families are not migrants anymore; they should be considered refugees because

they are fleeing for their lives” she stated. Although she mentioned that migration is not a new

phenomenon, she made the clarification the factors that caused migration before are not better

economic opportunities anymore. Violence is what pushes Hondurans, Salvadorans, and

Guatemalans to flee their country now days. Migrants caravans are not a new issue, Fatima

expressed. Caravans grew larger in size from ten to thousands of people because they do not have

money to pay coyote, she claimed. Coyote is a person who is in charge of passing immigrants to

the United States illegally. “The new migrants flow is considered humanitarian crisis” she said. I

asked her what was the message these refugees were trying to send. Fatima answered: “The first

message they want to send is to the US immigration authorities. They want to let them know that

they are not migrants but refugees and the fact they are looking asylum. Also, they want the world

to know that this is their last resource to protect their child and their families”.
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The results of this study, with the perception of a journalist, revealed many of the

“immigrants” from the Northern triangle are fleeing their countries from crime. Gangs are the

major problem in the three countries. These ones dedicate to extort business by charging them

what is called “rent”, recruit and obligates minors to join their gangs, and kill anyone who crosses

them (Robbins, 2018). In El Salvador and Honduras, gang members are collecting $756 million

(El Salvador) and $200 million (Honduras) annually in extortion fees which heavily affects small

businesses and the most unprotected citizens: the poor (Robbins, 2018). Whoever refuses to pay

the “rent” fee to gang members risk themselves getting killed and their family members as well.

Therefore, citizens take the decision of leaving their country in search for a more secure place for

their families. High poverty rate is indeed one of the main causes of migration, but in the case of

the three countries, poverty becomes a bigger issue due to extortion.

Research Limitations

The limitation of this study was in the data collection, and time. Because I was only given

an approximate of three weeks, me data collection was very limited. I wanted to interview a refugee

from any of the three countries. Also, the setting in which the study took place (Davis, CA) is a

college town located in north California which limited finding a refugee from the northern triangle;

they tend to stay in bigger cities located in south California. In relation to data collection, I was

only able to get one interview. Despite the limitations, this research study provides valuable

information on the causes of migration from the Northern triangle, and why these citizens are

considered refugees instead of regular migrants.

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References

Greenberg, Jon. “Migrants at the Border: The Northern Triangle Nations.” Politifact, July 2018,

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/jul/02/migrants-southwest-border-

northern-triangle-nation/

Index Mundi. “Intentional Homicides (per 100,000 people) – Country Ranking.” Index Mundi,

February 2019, https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5/rankings

Robbins, Seth. “3 Crime Factors Driving Northern Triangle Migrants Out.” Insight Crime, October

2018, https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/crime-factors-pushing-northern-

triangle-migrants-out/

Rosenblum, Marc R., Brick, Kate. “U.S. Immigration Policy and Mexican/ Central American

Migration Flows: Then and Now.” Migration Policy Institute, August 2011,

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/RMSG-us-immigration-policy-mexican-

central-american-migration-flows
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Appendix A: Interview Questions

Dear Fatima Navarrete,

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview. Before I begin, I would like to remind
you the purpose of the interview. In my writing class, I was assigned to write a research project on
a wicked problem. I am interest in the topic of immigration especially due to the polemic the
caravan is causing now with the questions of: “why now” and “immigrants or refuges”. I will be
taking notes to capture the main points of the conversation. With your consent, I will be mentioning
you (name and last name) when writing my research paper. If you wouldn’t liken to answer any
question, you can let me know, and we will skip to the next one. You can quit the interview at any
time.

Do you have any questions?

Background questions:

1. Tell me about yourself

2. How do you work for? How long have you been working there?

Questions for the research project:

1. Why do you think the citizens of these three countries are deciding to leave their
countries?
2. As you have been following in the media, lately there have been multiple caravans
with citizens from these three countries migration to the US. Why now?
3. What are these immigrants fleeing their countries?
4. Why did citizens decide to leave their countries in caravans?
5. Are they trying to send a message by adopting this migration method? If so, what
message? To whom?
6. Why do Central American countries do not stop these caravans?
7. What happened with all these caravans that were coming to the United States?
8. What is the difference between just an immigrant vs a refugee?
9. Are these people considered just regular immigrants? Do they classify as refugees?
10. If they do classify as refugees, what are the qualifications they meet?