Although Guatemalan migrants are citizens who have made an enormous effort to reach the United States and have the necessary means to survive and send help to their families in Guatemala, they have become the most forgotten by the State and by candidates for the Guatemalan presidency.
This was stated by Dr. Úrsula Roldán, academic and migration specialist in an interview for Community Press in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press and Global Exchange, where he specified that only five of the 23 parties that aspire to the presidency this June 25 have ruled on migration.
In the framework of the general elections in Guatemala, the expert explained that the Seed Movement consulted some academics about the policies to be carried out with the migrant population, while parties such as Winaq, URNG and MLP approached migrant organizations, especially from indigenous population in the United States.
"They were one of the few parties that came to the Presidential Forum organized by migrant organizations in that country, and they continue to generate convocation processes to organize the migrant population in the United States," Roldán said, acknowledging that these parties are recognized as left-wing, center-left or progressive.
"We know that the CABAL party was also in this presidential forum, but from then on, no one else was present," he pointed out.
The doctor recognized that migrants, in addition to contributing to the country's economy and being one of the main sources of GDP, must be reciprocated with clear policies, not only towards the exercise of their Guatemalan citizenship in the United States, but also to be able to provide everything they need, such is the case of the necessary documentation to be able to regularize in the medium term and to be able to exercise other types of rights in the American union.
“It is important, and if they should have the same rights as any citizen of this country. The State owes a lot to the migrant population," he added.
The specialist explained that the institutions of the Guatemalan State are extremely weak and are clouded by cooptation and corruption, a situation that Guatemalan institutions established in the United States do not escape.
In this sense, he recalled that more than a year ago, the Guatemalan consulate in the city of Los Angeles was denounced for making undue charges regarding the passport, while there are various complaints regarding the DPI ?Personal Identification Document?, which It is essential for migrants to have some kind of chance to regularize in the US and also for any management they have to do, even from afar, in their country of origin.
In addition, he highlighted that, on the part of migrant organizations, there was a lot of demand to establish the registration, which in the end was not as desired, a much more numerical one.
“We have around 90 or 91 thousand people registered, it is known that there are 800 thousand who have documentation in the US, but we know that there is much more than that. The last census that they have just taken on remittances speaks of more than 1 million 500 thousand or 1 million 800 thousand; So it is always a small number that the consulates manage to reach given the distances and the little funding for the consulates in that country, in addition to their ineffective permanent relationship with the migrant population,” he explained.
In this regard, he said that the exercise of citizenship has to be a permanent relationship, where the needs of the migrant are met, one of which is documentation, and different problems that occur abroad such as the death of a family member, illness or imprisonment for a traffic violation, among many others.
"This is a permanent exercise that public institutions have not had the capacity to have a close presence to the migrant population in that country."
After the end of title 42 in the United States, he said that "unfortunately it has positive things, which could be regularization from the country of origin, and family reunification, and possibly the increase in work visas, without having to go to the US. USA, and avoid that dangerous trip. But it has other negative aspects such as the management of asylum and refuge that can put the lives of not only Guatemalans at risk, but of all Central Americans and other countries that will be passing through the region.
In addition, he said, Guatemala would not have the possibility of contributing to the management of processing centers. “We have already seen the consequences that it had in Mexico, many families stranded at the borders, in the cities of Mexico itself, surviving, because the states do not commit to providing work, housing, food and the issue of requesting refuge cannot be addressed. in a third country.
Although there is a possibility of managing the request for refuge and asylum from a third country, he specified, it should be in those countries that have clear agreements and where there is collaboration on issues of survival while the migrants do their work.
“It is a risk for the country that this is established in Guatemala, the immigration processing centers that will also be established in Colombia, and it is said that in other Latin American countries. The possibility that they process quickly and promptly, and that they can satisfy their demands is really small and puts the lives of migrants who are fleeing due to some well-founded fear at risk.
He added that deportation will continue to be a reality and "our country? Guatemala? It is not prepared for an integration of these people who are leaving precisely because they do not have employment conditions and decent living conditions.
In turn, he explained that reality can be complicated, “we can become a third border. The United States has already established it with Mexico, and now Mexico establishes it with us, with the risk that people will be stranded without the conditions for survival.”
«I don't think they? The candidates? are paying attention to this. Migrants are the latest policy in this country, and there is also a double perspective; On the one hand, there is pressure from the United States to contain immigration, deportation. But, on the other hand, many are interested in continuing to have immigration to avoid the social demand for basic needs.
Dr. Roldán pointed out that remittances sustain the economy and consumption in Guatemala, which is why there is this double standard in terms of working for a more adequate migratory regularization.
"A country in these conditions will only go to what the United States dictates and that benefits them in terms of impunity, and that is not wanted, it is sought that the country has the possibility that, together with other Central American countries, and Mexico, there is a high-level negotiation to make a regional migratory regularization and a possibility of regularization in the United States.
And it is that, although both political parties "Republican and Democrat" in the US have the issue of migration on their agenda, the specialist specified that the only thing they put on the political debate is whether the measures are much more restrictive or not , when they would have to focus on promoting migratory regularization.
Finally, he explained that there is concern on the part of migrants in the United States to have a link with their communities of origin and to be able to collaborate with their well-being and development, for which reason they seek associative ways to be able to make contributions. However, he said that the State places limitations and bureaucratic processes so that the aid does not reach the places directly, but rather through the federal government.
This, he said, becomes a problem, since migrants do not believe in the State as an intermediary, “because it has been seen that they have left much of the aid they send in warehouses. The government uses a series of obstacles to get the material to the communities.
“There is a lot to do, I do believe in the local organization of origin and destination, I believe that there are leaders who want to contribute to the country from the migrant population, but that more direct links must be created, avoiding the State for a long time, until we have one as it should be to create institutions that allow this link without manipulation of resources.
This note was produced in collaboration with the Organization Global Exchange and Community Press.
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