How Education can Contribute to Rootedness and Mitigate Irregular Migration: a Study from Rural Honduras

• In Event: People on the Move in Latin America: Key Factors, Data and Education as an Effective Response

Proposal

ORGANIZATION implements the USDA McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program in the departments of Intibucá and La Paz to increase literacy and provide nutritious school meals to over 90,000 children. One of the poorest departments in the country, over half of school-aged children in Intibucá live in poverty and many struggle with food insecurity, which presents numerous educational and nutritional challenges. Irregular migration to the United States from Honduras continues to be a common trend. Economic needs, violence, and insecurity are many of the reasons people choose to migrate. https://www.wola.org/analysis/halfway-to-us-report-honduras-migration/#:~:text=In%20the%20pandemic%20year%20of,year%2C%2034%20percent%20were%20women.
To better understand how the McGovern-Dole program is contributing to rootedness and potentially reducing outward migration, the program conducted a study to identify push and pull factors in the communities where the program is implemented and also look at how education contributes to keeping students and families in their communities.
The purpose of the study is to determine to what extent the implementation of the MGDIII program contributes to mitigating irregular migration of students in the departments of Intibucá and La Paz. The study specifically looks to:
• Identify the main factors of rootedness, social and cultural ties that determine in different population groups the intention to migrate or remain in their communities of origin.
• Identify the main factors that drive the aforementioned groups to migrate irregularly.
• Build the evidence base on how stronger education systems can mitigate out-migration.
• Assess how MGDIII project interventions contribute to strengthening the factors of rootedness and how they can be leveraged for greater impact.
The importance of this research responds to the non-governmental sector's need for evidence to address the needs of migrant populations to the United States in dignified conditions. Likewise, this research is relevant to establish how investments in development programs and projects such as McGovern-Dole could help reduce the push factors that push migrant populations to undertake the journey to the United States and increase student desertion in the country's educational system.
Knowing the factors that encourage both rootedness and emigration will also allow an analysis of the impact of policies, programs and strategies, as well as social and political actors in Honduras (at the national and local level) and northern countries and possible strategies to change the discourse around the topic of migration.
The study uses interviews and focus groups with key actors (mayors, education authorities, and parents) and those most affected and integrates specialized techniques to obtain in-depth answers on what they think about the topic of migration and the effectiveness of the mechanisms of reincorporating returnees into the educational system in Intibucá and La Paz.
This presenter will share the results of this study and outline how the CRS McGovern-Dole team will use the data to further strengthen programmatic areas, as well as how the results can be adapted to inform other NGOs and government organizations, ultimately giving students and parents the necessary resources to stay in their communities and prosper.

Author

• Jennifer Mallman, Catholic Relief Services CRS