Migration and the crisis of coffee
Stephanie Leutert has a really informative piece on the current coffee crisis in Guatemala for Time with Why Are So Many Migrants Leaving Guatemala? A Crisis in the Coffee Industry Is One Reason. Guatemalans have been coming to the United States for years to escape violence and to secure better economic prospects for their families. Unfortunately, la roya, climate change, and strong harvests in Brazil have only worsened the conditions of those Guatemalans employed in the coffee industry.
Guatemalan producers have tried to diversify their crops but expanded markets in bananas, plantains, and macadamia nuts do not offer as many employment opportunities as did coffee. Historically, underemployed or unemployed rural workers would move to the cities for work. While they still do, urban areas are unable to absorb the workers into their economies. If Guatemalans were not moving to the cities, they were often traveling north to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to work on its coffee farms. Unfortunately, the devaluation of the Mexican peso has made that alternative less attractive financially.
Guatemalans will continue to leave their country and attempt to make it in the United States as long as their own country does not provide them with sufficient opportunities for dignified work. Given the ongoing discrimination against the country's indigenous people, corruption and accompanying state weakness, low rates of tax collection and spending, weak economic growth, and worsening climate conditions, the exodus of Guatemalans is unlikely to abate anytime soon.
Guatemalan producers have tried to diversify their crops but expanded markets in bananas, plantains, and macadamia nuts do not offer as many employment opportunities as did coffee. Historically, underemployed or unemployed rural workers would move to the cities for work. While they still do, urban areas are unable to absorb the workers into their economies. If Guatemalans were not moving to the cities, they were often traveling north to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to work on its coffee farms. Unfortunately, the devaluation of the Mexican peso has made that alternative less attractive financially.
Guatemalans will continue to leave their country and attempt to make it in the United States as long as their own country does not provide them with sufficient opportunities for dignified work. Given the ongoing discrimination against the country's indigenous people, corruption and accompanying state weakness, low rates of tax collection and spending, weak economic growth, and worsening climate conditions, the exodus of Guatemalans is unlikely to abate anytime soon.
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