Joint doctoral student, Elizabeth Kennedy, received a US Fulbright Student Award for 2013-2014 to conduct research with repatriated child migrants and children and youth living in lower income neighborhoods in El Salvador. If time and resources permit, she will also work with the same populations in Guatemala and Honduras. These three nations are the primary sending countries of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) to the United States, accounting for nearly 90 % of the 13,625 child migrants who entered shelters in 2012. The reasons for their migration are many, but it is important to note that these nations have amongst the highest rates of violence in the world, violence that disproportionately affects young people.
Elizabeth works with the Instituto de Derechos Humanos at the Universidad Centroamericana (IDHUCA), Catholic Relief Services, and the Salvadoran Foreign Ministry, to develop a project to apply important international justice precedents to the Salvadoran context, through the concerted application of national and international pressures for justice and a strengthening of grassroots movements within the country. In March 2011, El Salvador’s Legislature approved the Special Law for the Protection and Development of Salvadoran Migrants and their Families (Ley Especial para la Protección y Desarrollo de la Persona Migrante Salvadoreña y su Familia). It is supposed to protect the rights of Salvadoran migrants and their families and entered into effect on 22 April 2012. Part of the law required that a coalition be formed among civil society actors, researchers and each ministry of the government. This group is called the National Counsel for the Protection and Development of Migrants and their Family (Consejo Nacional para la Proteccion y Desarrollo de la Persona Migrante y su familia) or CONMIGRANTES. CONMIGRANTES had their first meeting on 6 November 2012 and continue to meet twice per month.
Each Ministry must send at least one representative. Then, nearly 20 non-profits providing services to migrants competed to represent the civil society for the next three years. COFAMIDE (Committee of Relatives of Dead and Missing Migrants of El Salvador) won. Universidad de El Salvador is the only public university in the country and thus represents “all public universities.” Universidad Panamericana won the bid to represent El Salvador’s more than thirty private universities.
CONMIGRANTES invited Elizabeth to present information about child detention and deportation in the United States, and she gave a 50-minute presentation based on her experiences in two San Diego County shelters and previous research. She then answered questions from members for 10 minutes. “We hope to strengthen our collaboration and possibly pilot a formal reintegration program for deported child migrants during my Fulbright Fellowship. At the meeting’s conclusion, Universidad de El Salvador’s representative Diego Franco asked to interview me for their Informed Perspectives segment on YSUES Radio Universitaria and aired it in November” (interview translated by Elizabeth):
FRANCO: The child migration phenomenon in Central America is growing in many directions. At this point, many are starting to contemplate the necessity of analyzing it more deeply after determining what kind of problems these children and youth encounter while traveling alone, or with others, to the United States. For this reason, United States Fulbright Scholar, Elizabeth Kennedy, has started a research investigation in these countries about child migration with children and youth.
KENNEDY: The objective is two-fold. There [in the US], I worked with unaccompanied child migrants, the majority of whom are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Now, I want to understand the effects of their deportation, but at the same time, I want to understand the causes of their emigration from neighborhoods [of origin]. So, the idea is to meet deported children and then to visit their neighborhoods to see what is there, to talk with their communities and family members to understand the causes.
FRANCO: According to Kennedy, the legal system for detained child and youth migrants is complicated. And in certain ways, affects their rights. Then, she explained what they confront.
KENNEDY: But the important thing to realize is that they [child and youth migrants] are inside the shelters. They have more time. And normally, they leave and are reunified with their families. But, they still have open cases in Immigration Court. Many do not understand this – neither the kids, their parents nor their family members. So, this is probably the most important piece to explain to them. At this time, there are many who do not go to court, and at that point, they become undocumented. Then, they can have problems in the future. The system, more or less, is to care for them until the shelters can find family members with whom to reunify them. Obviously, they are vulnerable, and yes, even after arriving in the US, they are still vulnerable.
FRANCO: Kennedy also considers it necessary for the US to implement immigration reform to assist children and youth who migrate.
KENNEDY: I believe the most important thing is to have a comprehensive and integrated immigration system. In this moment, we have a system that more or less penalizes everything. But we have a lot of migration within the region, between Mexico, Central America and the United States. And the work is there [in Mexico and the US]. So I believe that the US government and also Mexico’s government need to understand that we need this movement. It is movement caused by our economic system, and we have to change the laws. Because they affect our children. They also affect our families. Especially in this moment, we are seeing distinct effects on children.
FRANCO: According to this researcher, it is a complicated situation that involves different factors like family reunification, forced migration from violence, or exploitative labor. For whatever reason, it is very important to understand this phenomenon to apply favorable methods to this vulnerable sector of our society.
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