“Deportee trash” or humanitarian responsibility: Central American government state responses to deported nationals

• In Event: Central American and Mexican governments’ responses to the increased risks of emigration: A planned strategy or a reaction in “times of crisis”?

Abstract

Each week a steady stream of migrants are deported from the U.S. to Guatemala and Honduras. For years, undocumented Central American migrants have outnumbered deportations to other Latin American countries. In this paper we examine how migrant-producing states are institutionalizing reception policies for deported migrants. These policies vary from country to country and may include the creation of institutions, programs, or statistical databases, or short-term actions such as providing snacks, phone calls, and currency exchange to deported citizens.
We ask which factors make some sending states reluctant to implement reception policies? First, we look at the diaspora trajectory. If migration took off during or after conflict migrants may have expanded their social networks abroad and have less trust in state institutions. Second, we look at country of origin’s context, e.g. state capacity to negotiate with receiving and transit states, institutionalized diaspora discourse, institutional stability, as well as level of delegation to non-state actors of reception services. We argue that since deported migrants represent neither a political nor an economic gain, governments give limited attention to reception policies. We draw on material from the program “Bienvenido a Casa” in Guatemala and the “Centro de Atención para el Migrante Retornado” in Honduras.

Authors

• Isabel Rosales Sandoval, GIGA

• Ninna Nyberg Sorensen, Danish Institute for International Studies