{"id":1296,"date":"2018-08-30T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2018-09-08T10:40:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T15:40:30","slug":"the-reincorporation-of-returned-migrants-a-challenge-for-mexicos-next-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/2018\/08\/the-reincorporation-of-returned-migrants-a-challenge-for-mexicos-next-president\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reincorporation of Returned Migrants: A Challenge for Mexico\u2019s Next President"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece was originally published in the Spanish-language online publication, Animal Pol\u00edtico<\/a><\/span>,<\/a> on August 29, 2018. With permission from the author, we are providing a copy of the complete English version, below, which features our work in Guadalajara, Mexico.<\/i><\/p>\n

By:\u00a0Savitri Arvey (@SavitriArvey<\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

As Mexican president elect Andres Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador defines his policies in the coming months, the reincorporation of the millions of Mexican migrants will be one of his major migration challenges. \u00a0His team will have to address the migrants who come back both after days or decades in the United States, and will have to contend with their varied methods of returning, either from deportation or voluntarily given their desire to reunite with family, continue their studies, or due to the fear\u00a0of\u00a0deportation. This was an issue for the past two administrations, who began programs such as Repatriaci\u00f3n Humana<\/span><\/i> (2008) and\u00a0<\/span>Somos\u00a0Mexicanos\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(2014). However, despite these efforts and allocated resources, migrants continue to face challenges over access to legal services, mental health, job training\u00a0and\u00a0even re-learning Spanish.<\/span><\/p>\n

I recently met Rodrigo, a deportee, on a bench in Nogales, Sonora just feet from the U.S.-Mexico border. Only 24 hours earlier, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had shown up at the Italian restaurant where he worked in Tucson, Arizona\u00a0and\u00a0brought him into custody. Now all he had to his name was a transparent plastic bag with a wrinkled sweatshirt and papers, and\u00a0despite being only an hour drive away from the place he called home for twenty years, hefty coyote prices\u00a0and\u00a0a potential prison sentence for illegal reentry stood in the way. With most\u00a0of\u00a0his family in the United States\u00a0and\u00a0only distant cousins left in Mexico, Rodrigo was debating whether to return to his home state\u00a0of\u00a0Oaxaca or to stay in Nogales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the Barack Obama administration (2008-2016), deportations may have been high, but toward the end\u00a0of\u00a0his term, fewer\u00a0of\u00a0these deportees looked like Rodrigo \u2013 with clean records\u00a0and\u00a0decades in the United States.\u00a0Obama’s team\u00a0increasingly focused on targeting migrants with criminal records, removal orders,\u00a0and\u00a0recent\u00a0crossers. Within days\u00a0of\u00a0taking office in January 2016, President Trump issued the\u00a0<\/span>\u201cEnhancing\u00a0Public\u00a0Safety in the Interior\u00a0of the United States\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0executive order that erased this prioritization, making any irregular migrant in the country a contender for removal. In practical terms, this means that an increasing number\u00a0of\u00a0migrants who built their lives in the United States are finding themselves in Mexico, a country that they barely remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

To arrive in Mexico, there are first the logistics\u00a0of\u00a0a deportation. The United States\u2019 Border Patrol\u00a0and ICE coordinate with Mexico\u2019s National Migration Institute (INM) to officially hand over the deported Mexicans at the gate that separates the two countries at the designated border crossings.\u00a0INM officials confirm their nationality by asking them to sing the Mexican national anthem\u00a0and\u00a0quizzing them on local slang, which helps to quickly distinguish between Mexicans\u00a0and\u00a0Central Americans. They have 12 hours to send non-Mexican adults back to the United States\u00a0and\u00a024 hours for unaccompanied minors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next is where these migrants are deported to, since they aren\u2019t deported back to their hometowns or even states\u00a0of\u00a0origin. While the majority\u00a0of\u00a0Mexican migrants hail from central\u00a0and\u00a0southern states such as Jalisco, Oaxaca,\u00a0Zacatecas,\u00a0and\u00a0Puebla,\u00a0<\/span>roughly nine out\u00a0of\u00a0ten<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Mexicans are deported to eleven towns\u00a0and\u00a0cities lining the U.S-Mexico border. To put this in context, Rodrigo was deported 1,500 miles from his hometown in Oaxaca. In 2013, the United States recognized that this was an issue\u00a0and\u00a0began sending about 10 percent\u00a0of\u00a0deportees to Mexico City on three flights per week, to be closer to their home states. U.S. authorities recently stopped these flights with the goal,\u00a0<\/span>according to<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0foreign secretary Luis Videgaray, to prioritize the repatriation of Central American migrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 90 percent of Mexican deportees that end up on the U.S. Mexico border will be dropped off between\u00a05am\u00a0and\u00a010pm,\u00a0and\u00a0high-risk populations\u2014such as women, the elderly, unaccompanied minors,\u00a0and\u00a0people with medical conditions\u2014must be deported before\u00a07pm.\u00a0Until 2014, U.S. authorities used to deport Mexicans 24\/7, stranding\u00a0<\/span>roughly one in five<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in unknown cities during the middle\u00a0of\u00a0the night\u00a0and\u00a0putting many at a\u00a0<\/span>greater risk\u00a0of\u00a0extortion, robbery\u00a0and\u00a0kidnapping<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, when the deportees arrive\u00a0and\u00a0are certified to be Mexicans,\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Repatriation Humana<\/span><\/i>\u00a0modules at the border crossings provide them with temporary identification, a sandwich, a phone call to loved ones in the U.S. or Mexico,\u00a0medical assistance, and\u00a0a ride to the nearest shelter or soup kitchen. These shelters\u00a0and\u00a0soup kitchens once catered to Mexican migrants hoping to build a new life in the U.S. \u00a0Today, they are mostly filled with deportees (roughly 90 percent\u00a0of\u00a0the population), with Central Americans making up the non-deportees. For those who want to return to their home state, the Mexican government will pick up the tab for a bus ticket up to 1,500 pesos. <\/span><\/p>\n

The deportees must then attempt to integrate back into their country, which can prove challenging. In 2014, Mexico created a federal program,\u00a0<\/span>Somos Mexicanos<\/span><\/i>, to support this process in the country\u2019s 32 states\u00a0by providing advising\u00a0on\u00a0documents, recuperating personal belongings,\u00a0finding\u00a0jobs,\u00a0and providing\u00a0health services, self-employment programs, options to continue studies, and other local resources depending on\u00a0the state\u00a0and municipal budgets. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like many irregular Mexican immigrants, Rodrigo lost his birth certificate\u00a0and\u00a0voter identification (INE) during his decades in the United States, which will prevent him from opening a bank account, finding a job in the formal sector,\u00a0and\u00a0accessing public\u00a0healthcare\u00a0until he can resolve the paperwork. In November 2017, the government made it possible to apply for a birth certificate online, which has greatly facilitated the process. But deportees recently came up against a new problem. During the run-up to the elections in July, INE completely stopped processing voter IDs, leaving thousands of deportees undocumented and without access to services for several months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once his documents are fixed, Rodrigo will need\u00a0to find\u00a0a job.\u00a0The Mexican government created\u00a0<\/span>a job portal<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0through the program\u00a0<\/span>Repatriados\u00a0Trabajando<\/span><\/i>\u00a0with listings based on profession\u00a0and\u00a0state. According to the statistics,\u00a0it connected 4,516 migrants to jobs in 2017,\u00a0less than 3 percent\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>migrantes repatriados<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0that year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>The INM\u00a0<\/span>Somos Mexicanos\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Coordinador in Guadalajara has taken a creative approach to supporting the job hunt by making agreements with companies in the private sector that recognize the unique skillset that returned migrants gained in the U.S. and offer them the opportunity for an interview. Shelters also serve as intermediaries between migrants\u00a0and\u00a0contractors in the informal\u00a0and\u00a0formal sector. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet even if deportees can find a job, the low-skill jobs that they can find, especially without developed social and professional networks, can pay just several\u00a0thousand pesos a month, a fraction\u00a0of\u00a0what deportees earned working for minimum wage in the United States. Low blue-collars wages, which pushed many migrants to leave in the first place, make it hard to rent a room and build a new life. Call centers and hotels that place a high value on returned migrants\u2019 English skills often offer the best paying jobs, and deportees\u2019 families sometimes send remittances from the U.S. to help out. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even with a job\u00a0and\u00a0place to live, deportees must\u00a0readapt\u00a0to a country they might no longer know, a bureaucracy they don\u2019t understand,\u00a0and\u00a0sometimes a language they no longer\u00a0speak fluently. This form\u00a0of\u00a0family separation takes a psychological toll, which has led to a spike in homelessness\u00a0and\u00a0drug abuse in the border cities. The issues have become so serious that psychologists are now located at some repatriation points\u00a0and\u00a0shelters, but this insufficient to meet the high need for longer term mental health services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To fulfill these unmet needs, returned migrants in Mexico City have started organizations such as\u00a0<\/span>Otros\u00a0Dreams en\u00a0Acci\u00f3n<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Deportados\u00a0Unidos en la Lucha<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>New Comienzos<\/span><\/i>, that offer advising about processing documents, as well free classes in Spanish\u00a0and\u00a0other skills such as accounting. But more importantly they provide deportees with a community\u00a0of\u00a0peers with a similar cultural background going through the same bureaucratic and emotional process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other civil society actors have also been coming up with innovative solutions. In the last several months, the Scalabrini Migrant Network opened a\u00a0<\/span>technical school<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in its Tijuana migrant shelter to teach deportees marketable skills and help them brush up on their Spanish. It is also going to expand its Guadalajara shelter that was created specifically to reintegrate returned migrants, who can stay for several months to receive integral bureaucratic, employment, and psychological support. In partnership with the Scalabrini network, Tran Dang, a U.S. lawyer, started El Centro Rizoma del Migrante<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0to provide post-deportation legal services to returned migrants in Jalisco. <\/span><\/p>\n

Civil society initiatives offer lessons to the incoming Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador administration of how to build upon current programming to craft strategies that also include language lessons, technical job training, as well as legal and mental services for Mexicans who have spent years north of the border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in Nogales, Rodrigo pulled out a photo\u00a0of\u00a0his 16-year-old daughter\u00a0and\u00a010-year-old son, boasting about how Marta was at the top\u00a0of\u00a0her class in math\u00a0and\u00a0Luis was a promising basketball player. \u201cI don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll be able to give them a hug next\u201d, he mumbled,\u00a0eyeing\u00a0the border wall 30 feet away, \u201cbut I think I\u2019ll stay here, closer to them\u201d.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This piece was originally published in the Spanish-language online publication, Animal Pol\u00edtico, on August 29, 2018. With permission from the author, we are providing a copy of the complete English version, below, which features our work in Guadalajara, Mexico. By:\u00a0Savitri Arvey (@SavitriArvey) As Mexican president elect Andres Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador defines his policies in the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[51,43,33,49,48,50,34,47],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","tag-civil-society","tag-deportation","tag-mexico","tag-migration","tag-reintegration","tag-repatriation","tag-returned-migrants","tag-u-s-mexico-border"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rhizomecenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/animal-politico.png?fit=592%2C317&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhizomecenter.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}