South-south migration and the educational impact of globalized racism in Costa Rica

• In Event: Youth and immigration: Evaluating the effectiveness of intervention programs

Abstract

Purpose
Immigration has historically precipitated xenophobia attitudes and increased racial tensions between the citizens of the host country and the recent arrivals. Immigrants pay a heavy price for being of a different color and having an accent (Orelus, 2011). This study explores the dimensions of racial discrimination in Costa Rica in the context of international development and the underpinnings of an emerging regime of planetary order (Duffield, 2006). In particular this study looks at the development of Costa Rican identity through its education system and popular media. It also examines the dilemma of identity that the education system places on Nicaraguan children who are educated and remain in Costa Rica.

Perspective(s)
Historically the migration of populations across borders has been marked by the struggles of immigrants to fit in and be accepted by the host culture (Hacker, 2003). While immigrants migrate for individual reasons there are structured reasons such as political and economic instability, social and religious intolerance, and the lack of economic opportunities that force populations to relocate across borders (Chomsky, 2007).
Despite the ample contributions that the newly arrived Nicaraguan labor force has made to the growth of the Costa Rican economy, they have faced as immigrants racism and discrimination at the hands of the Costa Rican population (Sandoval Garíca. 2006). Yet outside of language dialect and the dress of new arrivals (and an examination of one’s identity card), it is almost impossible for most Costa Ricans to distinguish themselves from their northern neighbors. In the context of globalization, regional/cultural differences appear less contentious as racism becomes linked to migration and the development of a new planetary order (Duffield, 2006).
Globalization has worked to eliminate boundaries and redefine racism so that members of society are essentially connected to and responsible only to themselves. (Pentini & Lorenz,
2006). Lemke (2011) argues that a plurality of races that have opposed each other, has shifted to a single race, driven by neutrality, “value-free”, and objectivity that have redefined social, political, and economic relationships. Racism thus directs itself against its own elements and products and becomes a dichotomous and dynamic relationship between people in a society.

Methods & Data Collection
We examine and analyzed the development of identity and racism of Nicaraguan students in rural schools in Costa Rica using an interpretative qualitative case study research approach (Yin, 2003). Data were collected over the course of 16 years through open-ended and structured personal interviews with over a dozen students in a zone that had a high concentration of Nicaraguan migrants. All of the informants were born in Nicaragua but had left the country as children and had attained most of their education in Costa Rica.
Data analyses were ongoing with the data collection and as interview and observations were transcribed reoccurring themes were noted in the field log which in turn generated further interview questions (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003). Data was analyzed in the context of Foucault’s conception of racism and sovereign power (Lemke, 2011).

Results/Conclusions

Despite public racist attitudes the Costa Rican Ministry of Education has opened its doors to the children of Nicaraguan immigrants. The hostility towards the Nicaraguan immigrants is not address in the classroom and just about all the immigrants who attend school quickly lose their last vestiges of their culture which is their accent. The only discrimination they eventually do experience is the inability to apply for higher education scholarships and/or government jobs because of their nationality.
Nicaraguan children who return home on visits with parents realize that they have lost their identities along with their dialects. For most their only options is for a forced identity change by applying for Costa Rican citizenship. As new citizens or as guest workers their identity and worth is individual and related only to their ability to work and contribute to a globalized market place.

Scholarly Significance

In the past year, Central America has once again become a focal point as immigrant children pour across US borders from Central America. Nobel Prize winner and two time president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias in a recent Washington Post article, wrote that the problem of immigration in Central America is indicative of much larger problems that plague the region (2014). Many conflicts that send immigrants across borders are a direct result of political and economic policies and actions of developed countries. Investment in building schools and educating youth rather than developing racial divisions among countries costs less and pays far better dividends than barricading and policing borders.

Authors

• Steven Locke, University of Wyoming

• Carlos Ovando, Arizona State University