Poverty In Latin America

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

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