Commentary: Unearthing the Root Causes of Central American Migration

• Author: Louis A. Pérez
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221134810
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Commentary

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X221134810

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 247, Vol. 49 No. 6, November 2022, 198–200

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X221134810

© 2022 Latin American Perspectives

198

Commentary

Unearthing the Root Causes of Central

American Migration

by

Louis A. Pérez Jr.

A remarkable occurrence: a presidential executive order has provided the

American people with an opportunity to engage in a historical reckoning:

President Joe Biden has called for an examination of the causes of Central

American migration—an effort to “identify and prioritize actions to address

the underlying factors leading to migration in the region and ensure coherence

of United States Government positions.” His February 2021 order was followed

by Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Guatemala in June 2021 to add an

in-person emphasis to the need to address “the root causes of migration”

because “migration from the region has a direct impact on the United States.”

There was some urgency, she indicated, about understanding the needs of peo-

ple “fleeing harms” and unable to “satisfy the basic needs of their families” and

about seeking a remedy for “the hardships that cause people to leave Central

America and come to our border.”

To address the root causes of Central American migration implies the need

to confront the past as a matter of national policy, to direct attention to the cir-

cumstances of people overtaken by a remorseless history mostly not of their

making and to address the impending calamities beyond their control—people

in flight seeking to escape past adversity and future uncertainty. Theirs are a

past and a future in which the United States is implicated, in part to be held

accountable for the root causes and in part to be held responsible for remedying

their effects.

As a matter of “coherence of United States Government positions,” two

seemingly contradictory principles must be reconciled. The first is that, as do

all countries, the United States reserves the right to determine whom it admits

to its national territory. The United States is a country, the order affirms, “with

borders and with laws that must be enforced.” The second is the principle pro-

pounded in the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that

“liberty of movement is an indispensable condition for the free development of

a person”—that people possess an inalienable right to seek remedy for insecu-

rity and endangerment and obtain a better life for themselves and their chil-

dren. Any prospect of “coherence of United States Government policies” to

address Central American migration thus depends on correctly identifying the

root causes—addressing the circumstances of migration at the point of

Louis A. Pérez Jr. is the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History and director of the Institute for the

Study of the Americas at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1134810LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X221134810Pérez Jr./ROOT CAUSES OF CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRATION

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