Written by Debbie Bohem, Professor at University of Nevada that focuses on immigrant family relations and the experiences of immigrant children

Why Migrate to the United States 

Carlos migrated to the United States from Honduras as a child, and Los Angeles, California became his home. When he left Honduras, he remembers the excitement of being able to reunite with his mother in the United States, flying on an airplane for the first time, and moving close to Hollywood, a place he never had imagined he would live. He also recalls the difficulties of migration, especially how he was separated from his grandparents after living with them throughout his childhood. After migrating, Carlos saw his grandparents only one more time. Painfully, they passed away before he was able to visit again. Migration always separates families and communities across borders, especially when people do not have a path to citizenship within destination countries.

While people often think of migration as an individual decision, it must be understood within larger economic and political circumstances and systems. In Honduras, for example, migration has been linked to particular historical events. As the geographer Joseph Nevins explains, a strong presence of U.S. military and U.S.-based corporations in Honduras has resulted in ongoing Honduran emigration. Nevins outlines that under the Reagan administration, U.S. soldiers were stationed in Honduras as part of the U.S. state’s efforts to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, and during the Obama administration, U.S. officials continued to send aid to Honduras even after a 2019 coup. President Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric about migrant caravans disavowed the central role of the United States in motivating migration in the first place. And as anthropologist Amelia Frank Vitale describes, Hondurans often migrate to the United States because of threats to their lives, violence that has been created by U.S. interventions and actions.

Around the world, migrations can be traced directly to many different factors, such as state violence, human rights abuses, national and international politics, and the effect of U.S. policies abroad. People from countries across the globe migrate fleeing violence and war, due to disasters and climate change, and for work opportunities to provide for loved ones. Above all, migrants cross borders to ensure their own and their family’s well-being, protection, and safety.

To read more about previous and current migrations from the country where Carlos was born, please follow the links below: 

“How US policy in Honduras Set the Stage for Today’s Migration” in The Conversation by Joseph Nevins (October 25, 2018)

“I Live in Honduras, Where People are in Constant Fear of Being Murdered: It’s No Wonder They Join Caravans” in Fortune by Amelia Frank Vitale (November 23, 2018)