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Poverty In Latin America

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People form Latin America may migrate to the United States for a variety of reasons including better economic opportunity, violence in their home country, and family reunification. Parents see the U.S. as an avenue for a better life for both themselves and their children. However, even though migrating seems like a great option that doesn’t mean making their way to America will be easy.

Improved economic opportunity is an extremely important reason why Latin Americans migrate to America. Over the last few decades Latin America has suffered from abject poverty and is evident in its poverty inequality. For example, countries wealthiest 10% of the population may have 85 times more resources then the poorest 10%. This poverty plaguing Latin America was extremely evident in a 1995 sample collecting poverty statistics when according to de la Cuesta and Luis, 1996, “35.1 percent of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean was below the poverty line, and 18.8 percent was below the extreme poverty line.” These high rates of poverty could explain why someone would leave their country. One example of this is the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) in 1994, which heavily subsidized U.S. corn and Mexican farmers could not compete forcing them to migrate to the U.S. to find work. NAFTA has also …show more content…

Gang violence can result in homicides, rape, theft, and assault and can destroy the life of those affected. For instance, according to Jones and Rodgers, 2009, “ In El Salvador 93 percent of all homicide victims in 2005 were between 15 and 17 years old, while 15-24 year olds were deemed responsible for some 60 percent of all homicides in the same year (UNODC 2017).” The gang’s control of society and the treat of forced recruitment at an early age puts great fear in both children and their parents. To avoid recruitment and violence from gangs these children attempt to enter the

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The El Salvadoran government’s recent “Mano Duro” policies created a massive overcrowding of prisons where established MS-13 members recruit the few adolescents not yet involved in gang activity. To become a full-fledged member of MS-13, recruits must show their allegiance to the gang by getting tattoos all over their bodies. Additionally, male members are beaten for thirteen seconds and female members must engage in sexual intercourse with every male member of that particular

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(Ryan, 2000, p.35). There are many reasons migrant families leave their countries. They might be forced out, for political or economic reasons, or because they have family already living in the United States. However, the main goal for many is to become more like Miguel explained. For any migrant child living in the Central Valley they can connect to this American dream because that is what their family is trying to do.

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III. A theory in the work is that political and economic structures failed to provide enough decent opportunities and support to the whole economy. IV. The Author does not present any original research, does use sources to come to conclusions on poverty. The author doesn’t mention the methodology used.

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Neoliberalist policies also helped to reduce and sometimes eliminate the national debt in many Latin American countries. Though neoliberalist politics helped in many ways, there were many aspects that had a negative effect on those in poverty. Capitalism and free trade greatly benefited the middle class in Latin America and made the wealthy even wealthier, but those in poverty remained in poverty and their situations were often worse than before. These individuals were often forced into jobs that paid a miniscule wage, often a wage that was unlivable. Eventually the free trade and low import and export tariffs came to be a burden on Latin America; similar to the United States many manufacturing companies moved away to find cheaper labor and boost their profits, this left many Latin Americans unemployed.

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According to a study by Dr. Michael Carlie, fifty to eighty percent of gang members come either from a single-parent home, or one in which no parent resides. If the parent is not available to provide structure, supervision, support, and caring during this crucial time of adolescent development, teens may turn to gang participation to fulfill their needs. In Reymundo Sanchez’s memoir Once A King, Always A King, Sanchez takes the reader through his struggle to rebuild his life outside of the Latin Kings, and his motivation to move beyond his disgusting past of drugs and violence. He also talks about losing close ones and friends due to resisting old habits.

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Poverty is a crippling situation which can stagnate the development of individuals. Insufficiency in a society can affect persons in more ways than one. Those experiencing a substandard way of living may not be able to obtain quality education which can cause a lack of sufficient employment. Lower paying jobs will more than likely not include quality health insurance for the employee.

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Many young teens who lack parental supervision or parents view gang involvement as a way of belonging. Once a person has joined the gang, they must follow a strict set of rules that cannot be broken. If these rules are broken, this can result in punishment or death (“Barrio Azteca,” 2018). John Burnett, a journalist, based in Texas, explains that Los Aztecas are now seeking to recruit younger boys who are already in trouble with the law (2009). Burnett goes on to explain that these young killers, called Sicaritos, who are usually 13-14 years old.

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In the United States, every year there are around 2,000 gang-related homicides and in the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E Hinton, it explores the issues of gang violence, and teenagers in gangs. Around 40% of all members in gangs are teenagers, who are getting involved in some dangerous things very early in life. In the novel The Outsiders, the “Greasers” which is a gang of all teenagers, fight other gangs and commit serious crimes such as murder. We as a society need to pinpoint why teenagers join gangs and stop them beforehand. We also need to help people get out of gangs if they are already in one.

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Thousands of years ago, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor began in Latin America because of the mistreatment of Indigenous people, a dispersed population and corrupt government officials. First, when Europeans came to Latin America they intended to rule. Bringing guns and disease, they wiped out most of the Indigenous people. Then, the Europeans put the remainder to work, stopping them from getting an education or live prosperously. Disrespecting the community and overworking them, left an overworked, uneducated group of people who stretched the wealth gap in Latin America.

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NAFTA took effect in January of 1994.Its main purpose is to increase the agriculture trade and investment among the three countries. According to the department of agriculture, Mexico lost over 900,000 farming jobs in the first decade of NAFTA. ( McKenzie, 2015 ). Before NAFTA people of Mexico grew corn and was able to support their family and country economy. Shortly after NAFTA cheap American corn came pouring in form the borders, which caused a major effect on families that were working in farms in Mexico.

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America the land of opportunity where you can live the American dream, but as great as this sounds it is the American “dream” for a reason, because the harsh reality is poverty. In 2010 poverty and welfare was a National Debate topic, what many do not realize is poverty can take many forms, currently 37 million Americans are living in poverty, and this number has been increasing since 2000 (“National Debate Topic”). In America, there several types of poverty, in order to combat poverty the government instituted the welfare system was put in place by temporarily assisting individuals with the hopes of getting these individual back to supporting themselves. Due to there being several different types of poverty, the welfare system is not effective in combating all types because of the varying degrees of severity and longevity of each types of poverty, and the amount and types of programs that are in place are not the most effective for all types. Life does not always go the one would like it to road bumps and unexpected situations always come up, examples of these unexpected situations are unemployment, medical crisis, death, and other unexpected situations.

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Many Mexicans move out of fear for their lives and hope that America is a safer place to live with lower crime rates. Unemployment and poverty is a major problem in Mexico. A large portion of the Mexican population are farmers, living in rural areas where it’s difficult to actually farm because of the high temperatures and the dry land. 47% of the population is living under the poverty line, so they move to America, because they hope to have better future aspects there.

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Secondly, income inequality goes hand in hand with unequal access to good things such as education, health and political power—inequalities that violate basic principles of democracy. Third, inequality in Latin America involves widespread poverty: two out of five Latin Americans are poor, even though most of them live in “middle-income” countries. In some countries, taxes and government spending remain “significantly below what is needed to support rapid social and economic development.” (Need

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1271 Words | 6 Pages

It takes an abundant amount of time, money, and paperwork to legally immigrate to the United States. The first step of the immigration process is obtaining a visa, a step that was difficult for my parents. There are multiple types of visas, depending on the purpose why one wants to move to the United States, such an employment, family, refugee, immigration, and marriage visa. My father first applied here as an immigrant, and when he arrived in the United States, my mother applied for a marriage visa to join my father to start their new lives together. They both went to the United Nations office in Baghdad, Iraq, a complicated six-hour drive from Slemani, Kurdistan to proceed with the preliminary steps.

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Gang violence is a growing problem in this world. No parent would like to imagine their kids dealing with weapons or being threatened by them. These violence’s affects each child individually and their families as well. These gangs recruit multiple different individuals for many reasons such as bribery, family traditions, or even threatening. Although, many kids feel like they have to be a part of it but there are many resources out in this world to prevent them from believing so.

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