scholarly journals The Fragility of the Labour Corridors to Costa Rica and the United States: Precarious Migrant Workers in Central America

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abelardo Morales-Gamboa

Central American migration flows take place mostly through two main corridors: the northern corridor to the United States, and the southern corridor to Costa Rica. Using the concept of fragility, in this article I analyse how migration combines the precarity and vulnerability that Central American workers face, both in their home country and in the corridors toward the destination labour markets. Their movements and the conditions they encounter reflect a new scale of local and transnational labour relationships. Migrant workers constitute a segment of the workforce in transnational corridors, which circulates between several informal activities but also among key sectors of the formal economy; the latter often takes advantage of their social, occupational and even legal difficulties. Keywords: Central America; migrant workers; labour markets; informal economy; labour corridors

1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Michael Bagley

By Mid-1986, The Contadora Group's search for a negotiated peace in Central America had reached a seemingly insurmountable impasse. Negotiations were deadlocked over the issues of arms limitations, democratization, and US support for the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries (contrarevolucionarios or contras). The United States and its closest Central American allies - Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador - demanded that Nicaragua reduce the size of its armed forces and install a democratic political system before they would end support for the contras Nicaragua's Sandinistas, in turn, refused to disarm until the United States and its Central American neighbors halted their support for the contras, they also rejected all proposals for direct negotiations with the contras.


1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Grieb

The militarycoup d'étatwhich installed General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez as President of El Salvador during December 1931 created a crisis involving the 1923 Washington Treaties. By the terms of these accords, the Central American nadons had pledged to withhold recognition from governments seizing power through force in any of the isthmian republics. Although not a signatory of the treaty, the United States based its recognition policy on this principle. Through this means the State Department had attempted to impose some stability in Central America, by discouraging revolts. With the co-operation of the isthmian governments, United States diplomats endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the leaders of any uprising, to deny them the fruits of their victory, and thus reduce the constant series ofcoupsandcounter-coupsthat normally characterized Central American politics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denielle M. Perry ◽  
Kate A. Berry

At the turn of the 21st century, protectionist policies in Latin America were largely abandoned for an agenda that promoted free trade and regional integration. Central America especially experienced an increase in international, interstate, and intraregional economic integration through trade liberalization. In 2004, such integration was on the agenda of every Central American administration, the U.S. Congress, and Mexico. The Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP) and the Central America Integrated Electricity System (SIEPAC), in particular, aimed to facilitate the success of free trade by increasing energy production and transmission on a unifi ed regional power grid (Mesoamerica, 2011). Meanwhile, for the United States, a free trade agreement (FTA) with Central America would bring it a step closer to realizing a hemispheric trade bloc while securing market access for its products. Isthmus states considered the potential for a Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, their largest trading partner, as an opportunity to enter the global market on a united front. A decade and a half on, CAFTA, PPP, and SIEPAC are interwoven, complimentary initiatives that exemplify a shift towards increased free trade and development throughout the region. As such, to understand one, the other must be examined.


1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Holden

The US.-sponsored programs of military and police collaboration with the Central American governments during the Cold War also contributed to the surveillance capacity of those states during the period when the Central American state formation process was being completed. Guatemala is used as a case study. Washington’s contribution was framed by the conventional discourse of “security against communism” but also by an underlying technocratic ethos in which “modernization” and “security” were higher priorities than democratization.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julissa Rojas-Sandoval

Abstract Ipomoea quamoclit is a fast-growing vine, native to Mexico and Central America, and widely cultivated and introduced to many countries as an ornamental for its attractive foliage and bright flowers. It has escaped from cultivation to become naturalized and invasive in a variety of habitats, where it competes with native vine species and behaves as an agricultural weed. It is listed as invasive in Australia, Papua New Guinea, India, the United States, Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Maldives, the Seychelles and many islands in the Pacific Ocean.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-118
Author(s):  
Arkadiy Alekseevich Eremin

This article is an attempt to critically analyze the policy of the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump regarding the southern border of the USA with Mexico. The paper analyzes the approach of Washington under the administration of D. Trump to the problem of the joint border between USA and Mexico, as well as conducts a comprehensive assessment of the main programs underlying the most pressing changes in D. Trumps policy in this area. In particular, the paper focuses on the structure of migration flows between 2017 and 2019, as well as on the reasons behind those changes. The author looks at the root causes of the unprecedented increase in the flow of potential migrants and refugees, and correlates them with the ongoing political, economic and humanitarian crises in the Central American sub-region. An important focus is given to the increasing role of Mexico in the settlement of this issue, as well as to the potential impact of such cooperation between the authorities of the United States and Mexico on the situation in Central America and Latin America in general. The significance of this paper is determined by the objective necessity of academic evaluation of the Donald Trumps administration impact on the United States governmental and foreign policy course. The author argues that the approach of the 45th president of the United States regarding traditionally sensitive issues like US - Mexico border control and migration has been mostly based on coercive tactics with obvious disregard towards social basis and root-causes of the issue at hand. One of the most distinguished traits of this approach is the practice of outsourcing managing the problem of refugees from Central America to the border-country, which in this specific case is Mexico.


Author(s):  
Evan D. McCormick

Since gaining independence in 1823, the states comprising Central America have had a front seat to the rise of the United States as a global superpower. Indeed, more so than anywhere else, the United States has sought to use its power to shape Central America into a system that heeds US interests and abides by principles of liberal democratic capitalism. Relations have been characterized by US power wielded freely by officials and non-state actors alike to override the aspirations of Central American actors in favor of US political and economic objectives: from the days of US filibusterers invading Nicaragua in search of territory; to the occupations of the Dollar Diplomacy era, designed to maintain financial and economic stability; to the covert interventions of the Cold War era. For their part, the Central American states have, at various times, sought to challenge the brunt of US hegemony, most effectively when coordinating their foreign policies to balance against US power. These efforts—even when not rejected by the United States—have generally been short-lived, hampered by economic dependency and political rivalries. The result is a history of US-Central American relations that wavers between confrontation and cooperation, but is remarkable for the consistency of its main element: US dominance.


Significance Elsewhere in the region, only Panama has so far received a first vaccine shipment, suggesting roll-outs initially will be patchy. Central American governments are sourcing their vaccines either through direct purchases from manufacturers or through programmes run by the World Health Organization (WHO). Impacts A black market is likely to emerge both for vaccines and vaccination certificates. Poorer countries will receive more vaccine support once roll-outs have advanced in wealthier countries globally, but this may take time. Vaccine roll-out in the United States will benefit Central America in terms of tourism, business travel and investment recovery.


2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Leyendecker ◽  
Michael E. Lamb ◽  
Robin L. Harwood ◽  
Axel Schölmerich

Long-term socialisation goals and evaluations of infant behaviour in a variety of everyday contexts were studied among 45 mothers who had immigrated from Central America to the United States, and 41 mothers from European American backgrounds. In accord with expectations based on broad cultural constructs, mothers from Central America emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Proper Demeanour. In addition, when describing and evaluating everyday situations, they were likely to attribute the desirability or undesirability of these situations to the child's own appropriate and cooperative behaviour, and were likely to highlight mutual enjoyment when describing preferred play situations. In contrast, Euro-American mothers emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Self-Maximisation, and when describing undesirable everyday situations, stressed the role of external factors not under the child's control, presumably to preserve the child's self-esteem. However, it was also found that the Central American mothers endorse selected aspects of individualism related to promoting their children's economic and personal potential in the United States. These findings point not only to the multidimensional nature of individualism, but also to the heterogeneity of beliefs among Latino populations. The importance of studying within-group variation with regard to the individualism/sociocentrism construct is highlighted.


1990 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Payne

Within the international politics of the Caribbean Basin attention is only rarely paid to the position of Belize. This neglect is the more remarkable since Belize epitomizes — more precisely than any other territory of the region — the characteristic geopolitical problem of the Caribbean caught, as it were, uneasily between the United States, Latin America and Europe. Yet, despite being threatened by the Guatemalan claim to sovereignty over its territory, which delayed its independence until 1981, Belize has skillfully taken advantage of its British colonial past to carve out for itself a distinctive geopolitical space in Central America and the Caribbean. This has allowed it not only to remain relatively undisturbed by the conflicts which have riven the other states of the Central American isthmus, but also to display a commitment to democratic change strong enough to sustain the electoral defeat — in December 1984 — of a regime which had held power in the country for more than thirty years, as well as the defeat of its successor — in September 1989 — after just one term in office.


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