Can you reduce Central American migration?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2019
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Families from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now make up the majority of migrants arriving at the US southern border. Many from urban areas are fleeing endemic gang violence, while those from rural regions are affected by droughts and food security issues.
The Mexican government is increasing security along their borders, while the Trump administration has been changing asylum law. Could these measures help to lower the number of people choosing to make the dangerous journey? Or is there another way to make sure migrants don't feel like they need to leave their homes?
(Photo: A Guatamalan mother with her three daughters crossed Mexico to reach the US border city of Juarez-El paso, Texas. Credit: David Peinado/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:03.2 | I'm Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:04.6 | Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his wife Tanya live with Oscar's mother in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador in Central America. |
| 0:23.0 | They have a little daughter, Valeria, not yet too, |
| 0:27.0 | and they want their own home, but they don't see how they'll ever manage it. |
| 0:38.0 | Oscar's got a job at a pizzeria, but he doesn't earn much. They make a big decision to leave El Salvador for the United States. |
| 0:48.0 | The young family made it as far as Mexico, |
| 0:51.0 | where they had to wait with thousands of others in an overcrowded migrant camp in 40 degree |
| 0:56.2 | heat. |
| 0:58.3 | On Sunday the 23rd of June this year, Oscar decided to act. He took his daughter in his arms and swam across the Rio Grande, |
| 1:07.2 | the river that separates Mexico and the US. But the currents were too strong. |
| 1:16.0 | A photograph of their washed up bodies, face down in the water, |
| 1:20.0 | Valeria's arm still around her father's neck shot the world. |
| 1:25.0 | There's political will to reduce the number of people making the dangerous journey from Central America to the US and a humanitarian pressure too. |
| 1:37.0 | So this week we're asking, can you reduce Central American migration. |
| 1:49.0 | Part one, the bottleneck. |
| 2:07.2 | I grew up in the United States thinking I was just like all of my friends. We would sort of imagine the futures that we wanted to have. You know, could I be a lawyer, could I be a doctor, |
| 2:10.4 | could I be the president of the United States and all of that was still a possibility |
| 2:16.7 | before I turned 16. |
| 2:19.2 | After his |
| 2:23.3 | 16th birthday, Tom Wong was frustrated that his parents wouldn't let him get a driver's license |
| 2:28.7 | like all his friends. |
... |
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