The Blue Hour Thought to Solving Socio-Economic Challenges and Migration within Central America

By Lucian Simon Ionesco

The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything: how we live, how we work, how we engage with other people, and it most certainly changed our worldview forever. It was mid-February 2021, and I had been at Google working in a strategy role when COVID hit. Before striking mayhem in the news as a global pandemic, there were subtle hints that something wrong was happening.

 

Notes about canceled meetings, people wanting to avoid the office were happening on a global scale. I started connecting the dots, and to be safe, I needed to alter some plans immediately. My wife and children were visiting her family in Antigua, Guatemala, at the time, and originally, I had scheduled a short visit to them in early April.

 

Too many things were being flagged, and out of an abundance of caution, I changed my flight to the second week in March. Just a week away at that point. Hindsight, they say, is always 20-20 vision. In this instance, we made the right choice.

 

A couple of days after arriving in Guatemala for my visit, the news hit about COVID-19 globally. Countries began to close, and Guatemala was one of them. Thus began my 18-month eye-opening experience of not being just a visitor to Central America but rather a COVID-driven' resident'.

 

It was an eye-opening experience. It was a scary condition for everyone on this planet, to be sure, and my wife and I are glad that I was able to be with them. Thankfully we were located in a small, well-secured complex with many people who lived there being stuck in the city many kilometers away. We practically had the entire place to us. We needed the basics and fast: non-perishable foodstuffs and household items, disinfectant, and you name it.

 

Also, renting a car did not make sense anymore. We had to get a vehicle immediately. I only had a weekender bag and a small suitcase which meant I needed clothes, shoes, etc. In the United States, these would have been simpler problems: jump online to any grocery store, Amazon, etc., and wait for the package to arrive in a day or two. This was not the USA; this was Guatemala. I immediately discovered the challenges millions of people face in this country and across Central America. There was low/no access to common goods online, low/no customer-centric business, and most SMB's (Small to Mid-sized Businesses) operated off-the-books.

 

Another thing I noticed is that bootleg versions of Windows98 and MS Office95 are standard operating procedures. The number of people flying 'white flags' for help because of unemployment was staggering. Every corner had its occupants with white flags. Schools were closed, and in a country where the majority of the population is outside of the city center, with low/no access to reliable WIFI, the future cost of the loss of educational opportunities was not hard to see. My mind was spinning. This is 2021.

 

Everyone who wants to can get educated, can't they? Why not here, why not now?

 

Then we all saw on television the migration convoys heading from Honduras to the United States. I had to find some answers to understand better what was going on in my' new home'. The rest of what follows is based upon the problems, challenges, and opportunities that I have uncovered and how I think we can solve them.

 

When you are done reading this book, you will have gained a lifetime of experience in just a few short hours. The stories are interesting to follow, and the challenging concepts have been made easy to understand. So get ready to broaden your horizons and adjust your expectations because you are in for one hell of a ride!

 

Are you ready?

 

If you are, Click Buy Now With 1-Click or Buy Now to get started!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Editorial Atelerix Creative Quill
• Release date: Nov 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201201487

Lucian Simon Ionesco

I'm 51-year-old; I have a degree in psychology, specializing in motivation and mental disorders.I'm a Brazilian Christian, and I define myself as straight, and I'm a vegetarian. I grew up in an upper-class neighborhood. I was raised by my father and my mother, having left when I was young. I'm currently single. My most recent romance was with an artist called Ophelia Dana Phillips, who was 12 years older than me. We broke up because Ophelia felt Lucian was too busy for the relationship. My best friend is a chorus actor called Keira Morales. We get on well most of the time. I also hang around with Glenn Rees and Arran Davis. We enjoy worship together. I have decided to start my work writing since currently, due to the pandemic, I require an additional income. With the support of the Atelerix publishing house, I want to start giving my general knowledge about everything I have studied in my city to swim all this time. I hope that you fully recognize my writing and support me, especially if you have a loved one you can support with my knowledge; I will be more than happy to support me with a review of my book.

Book preview

THOUGHTS TO SOLVING SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND MIGRATION WITHIN CENTRAL AMERICA

FOREWORD

Introduction

Chapter One: Socio-economic Division and Poverty in Central America

Famine and Food Insecurity

Hunger and malnutrition: pending lessons

Food security versus hunger and malnutrition

The Food System

What made the decline in shipping from Latin America?

Country's Drop-in Exports

Dealing with Risks

Sectoral marketing

Food Aid

Lack Of Access to Products and Services

Central American Economic Integration Process

Costa Rica and Central America

Exports

Imports

Investments

Current situation

Incorporation of Panama into the Central American Economic Integration Subsystem

Low productivity

Missing integration in the Central American Region

The Most Violent Region in The World

Chapter Two: Educational Problems in Central America

Learn to be

Learn to know

Learn how to do

Learn to live together

Current Approaches to Education Received Are Insufficient

Coverage of the education system

Preschool (Kinder y Parbulitos)

Primary education (Primaria y secundaria)

High school (Preparatoria)

Higher education (Universidad, Maestría y Doctorado)

Teachers in Central America

The educational process is a common task.

The meeting point between teachers and parents

The educational responsibility of teachers and families

Type of responsible institutions

Quality of the teachers

Entry and graduation requirements

Low School Attendance in Central America

High degrees of repetition and extra age

Low education and its relationship with crime

Chapter Three: Transnational Migration in Central America

Let's analyze the example below.

Types of Migration in Central America

Internal migrations

Cross-border migrations

Extra-regional migrations

Transmigrations

Turning Point: The Critical Path of Migration

Racism And Elitism Behind Immigration Policies

How to reduce the impact of the growing discrimination against migrants, and why increases during a crisis?

Chapter Four: A look at the migratory reality of Central Americans to the United States of America

The Banana Massacre

North American Vision of Central American Immigration throughout History

United States Government Actions:

Actions of the Central American Governments

Determinants of migration to the United States.

Lack of Sustainable Economic Development:

Socio-Political Instability

The Civil Wars

Constant Violation of Human Rights

Irregular Migration

National laws and regulations

The contradictions arising from neoliberal globalization

The individual and collective agency of migrants

The activities of the << migration industry >>

The vulnerability of specific groups

Types of Irregular Migration

Labor insertion of Central American migrants

Criminalization of migration

Human security on the migration process

Chapter Five: The Role of Education as a Tool to Decrease Transnational Migration in Central America Education and its Correlation to Decreases in Crime and Increases in Socio-Economic Standing

Reconstruction of citizenship

Education and crime correlation

Risk and protection factors

A new door to employment opportunities

Entrepreneurship is a way of solving economic problems.

The major successes of Central American education: Hopes for the future

Bibliography

Foreword

The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything: how we live, how we work, how we engage with other people, and it most certainly changed our worldview forever. It was mid-February 2021, and I had been at Google working in a strategy role when COVID hit. Before striking mayhem in the news as a global pandemic, there were subtle hints that something wrong was happening.

Notes about canceled meetings, people wanting to avoid the office were happening on a global scale. I started connecting the dots, and to be safe, I needed to alter some plans immediately. My wife and children were visiting her family in Antigua, Guatemala, at the time, and originally, I had scheduled a short visit to them in early April.

Too many things were being flagged, and out of an abundance of caution, I changed my flight to the second week in March. Just a week away at that point. Hindsight, they say, is always 20-20 vision. In this instance, we made the right choice.

A couple of days after arriving in Guatemala for my visit, the news hit about COVID-19 globally. Countries began to close, and Guatemala was one of them. Thus began my 18-month eye-opening experience of not being just a visitor to Central America but rather a COVID-driven' resident'.

It was an eye-opening experience. It was a scary condition for everyone on this planet, to be sure, and my wife and I are glad that I was able to be with them. Thankfully we were located in a small, well-secured complex with many people who lived there being stuck in the city many kilometers away. We practically had the entire place to us. We needed the basics and fast: non-perishable foodstuffs and household items, disinfectant, and you name it.

Also, renting a car did not make sense anymore. We had to get a vehicle immediately. I only had a weekender bag and a small suitcase which meant I needed clothes, shoes, etc. In the United States, these would have been simpler problems: jump online to any grocery store, Amazon, etc., and wait for the package to arrive in a day or two. This was not the USA; this was Guatemala. I immediately discovered the challenges millions of people face in this country and across Central America. There was low/no access to common goods online, low/no customer-centric business, and most SMB's (Small to Mid-sized Businesses) operated off-the-books.

Another thing I noticed is that bootleg versions of Windows98 and MS Office95 are standard operating procedures. The number of people flying 'white flags' for help because of unemployment was staggering. Every corner had its occupants with white flags. Schools were closed, and in a country where the majority of the population is outside of the city center, with low/no access to reliable WIFI, the future cost of the loss of educational opportunities was not hard to see. My mind was spinning. This is 2021.

Everyone who wants to can get educated, can't they? Why not here, why not now?

Then we all saw on television the migration convoys heading from Honduras to the United States. I had to find some answers to understand better what was going on in my' new home'. The rest of what follows is based upon the problems, challenges, and opportunities that I have uncovered and how I think we can solve them.

Introduction

During the last thirty years of the 20th century, the Central American Region has been the scene of intense, diverse, and numerous population movements, becoming a territory of origin, transit, destination, and migratory return. Internal and international migratory movements are fundamental features of demographic changes in the region.

Despite this and the recognition that the migratory phenomenon has significantly impacted the region's countries' cultural, financial, political, and cultural life, relatively few investigations have been carried out.

Although there have been valuable advances in research, many have been financially supported by external sources, either through governments of other countries outside the region (the United States, Canada, Mexico, and member countries of the European Union) or from Bilateral and multilateral agencies and organizations for cooperation, which leads us to look carefully at the approaches, interests and possible interference of certain positions in the final products or the actions developed. In the same way, the region's universities have modestly supported the intellectuals dedicated to working, from different settings, on the migratory phenomenon.

Unfortunately, the study of migration still occupies a marginal position in the set of academic efforts registered in higher education centers in Central America. Therefore, the notion of regional mapping should prevail over the readers of this book. Its general purpose is to offer a detailed description, or as comprehensive as possible, of the most important pieces that deserve to be considered in analyzing and developing intervention strategies related to migratory trends in Central America.

Through the characterization of migratory flows (internal and international), the presentation of legal frameworks related to the phenomenon in the countries studied, public policies (current and absent), the work of international and local organizations, and the record of knowledge academics have generated on the subject, this Regional Mapping of Migration is proposed as an initial and unavoidable consultation document for those who turn their eyes on the Central American reality and specifically on the migratory reality that the countries of the region are going through, from a humanistic and solidarity.

Considering these purposes, the most significant aspects of the migratory phenomenon start with understanding the various causes of Central American migrations. Thus, we serve as a contextual and conceptual basis for the contents of this work with causality.

This will allow the reader to begin their journey of mapping from the antecedents of a phenomenon that, while not new, are more important today than the economy, culture, identity, and even the borders of Central American countries.

The margin of the States that must give them security and protect them. Many causes have motivated the mobility of millions of people in this and other world regions. There is frequent mention of internal armed conflicts, the various political crises in each of the countries, natural disasters, and a general yet unresolved economic crisis, as well as the insufficient level of development reached by the countries of the area, given the needs of a population that grows rapidly and seeks stability and improvement of their personal, family or community living conditions outside the region and at the same time.

However, in studying the causes of migration, recognizing structural problems in the region's countries must be overpowering. Many circumstances leading to migratory flow have not shown substantive change over the last hundred years and rather have deepened.

Among these, we can mention the recurrent and accurate concentration of wealth (particularly land resources) in small groups or national elites as the background of an old regional agrarian problem. Despite various agrarian reform initiatives (at different levels and degrees of scope), there has not been sufficient to ensure access to the material basis of life for broad segments of the population with an agricultural vocation.

Parallel to this problem is the widespread and general absence of rural development policies (agrarian policy) that prevent productive diversification, access to agricultural technology, international markets in the context of current globalization, and the setting in various commercial operations agreements. These strata of structural limitations become more complex in the vacuum of policies that favor the redistribution of wealth by promoting other economic and social development. The human development indices in the region reflect this considerable difficulty, which is still little attended in Central America. The States of the Region,

There are also significant deficiencies in the productive investment and generation of full employment for the region's populations. The opening to swallow capitals, which have concentrated their investments in the Textile factory activity, has not become the effective and employment-generating option capable of retaining the regional labor force and reducing the tendency towards their migration.

The same can be said about farming, manufacturing, and packaging activities around non-traditional products such as American products. Although these may seem to be relatively successful options in productivity, they run the risk of deepening dependence on international markets. Additionally, they have proven not to generate the levels of employment required by the region's economically active population.

On the other hand, the recurrent dependence on external cooperation to promote national and regional development should be mentioned. This dependence is aggravated to the extent that more and more capital flows on loan terms are among resources coming from abroad for development. An example of this form of relationship with donor states is the Social Investment Fund (FIS), which has shown its weaknesses concerning population development since it has favored more investment in infrastructure rather than xxx.

Programs such as these are examples of a wide range of actions promoted in the region that have increased Central American foreign debt, with consequences of a commitment to be inherited by future generations.

Chapter One: Socio-economic Division and