meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
From Our Own Correspondent

Mass Migration and the Families Left Behind

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every week, every month, thousands of would-be migrants are still turning up at Mexico’s border with the United States, hoping to get across. This has a profound effect on the people left behind, the families and wider communities where they grew up. Guatemala, for example, has a population of about sixteen million, and some estimates suggest a million of these have left. Megan Janetsky went there to meet some of the many people who have had to wave their relatives goodbye. It is not only poverty-stricken Latin Americans who go abroad in search of opportunity. This programme depends on people who are working overseas: the foreign correspondents who take up a posting, and then regale us with tales of their adopted countries. Any traveller though will tell you that returning home can also be an interesting experience, the chance to see a once familiar country through fresh eyes. Nick Bryant has just gone back to Australia after eight years, and says that it is not just him who changed during that time away. It started with her going to the police to complain that she had been gang raped; it resulted in a court case, with her in the dock. The case dates back to 2019, when a British student said she had been raped by up to twelve Israelis at a hotel room in Cyprus. She then retracted the allegation, and found herself convicted for making it up. That sentence has now been overturned, by a panel of judges in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. Anna Holligan watched the hearing, and says it focused attention on the way cases of rape and sexual assault are treated in Cyprus. With more than a hundred thousand Russian troops massed on its border, the Ukrainian Army is on high alert, while ordinary citizens are being mobilised for civil defence. In the capital, Kiev, these efforts are being overseen by the city’s Mayor, the former world champion boxer, Vitali Klitschko. Colin Freeman met him while he was out campaigning, and ponders now how well he’s suited to this new role.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:05.2

We often have stories on this programme about correspondence first impressions when they

0:09.7

arrive in a new country. Today we hear what it's like to go home again.

0:15.6

How a rape case and its aftermath have exposed deep-seated attitudes among police and others

0:21.3

in Cyprus, and the world boxing champion turned politician, now trying to prepare the

0:27.2

citizens of Ukraine's capital city for a possible Russian invasion.

0:33.5

First to perhaps the largest ongoing mass migration in the world. Every week, every month, thousands

0:40.8

of people are still turning up at Mexico's border with the United States, hoping to get

0:46.0

across. Of course it's not just Mexico itself they come from, these are migrants from

0:51.7

across Latin America, who head north in the hope of a better life. Some of fleeing violence

0:58.4

in their home countries, others simply want the chance of a job and some semblance of

1:03.4

financial security. The lucky ones make it into the US by hook or by crook, others as sent

1:10.5

back by the American border authorities or find their journey curtailed before they even

1:16.2

get there, their efforts wasted. But those who do successfully migrate also leave people

1:22.7

behind, the families and wider communities where they grew up. Guatemala, for example, has

1:29.4

a population of about 16 million, and some estimates suggest a million of these have left.

1:36.7

Megan Genetski has met some of the many people who've had to waive their relatives goodbye.

1:43.0

Moving through the western Guatemala and Highlands, you see connections to the United States

1:47.4

everywhere. It's a region that's been transformed by decades of migration. Our spot shops advertising

1:54.0

Ropa Americana or American clothes, including a floppy American flag hat, and I pass colorful

1:59.8

houses built almost exclusively from remittances, money sent home from relatives in the US.

2:06.3

But some effects of migration aren't so visible. I'm headed to a small town called Kahola,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.