Chapter 4 – Case Study of Honduras
4.1. History of Hondura’s First Waves of Migration
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Chapter 4 Case Study of Honduras
The Honduran migratory behavior has been changing since the early 1970s and 1980s where it went from being a receiving hub for its neighboring countries in conflict (Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras) to becoming more of a sending country. The most recent estimates recorder 677,950 Hondurans living abroad where the United States remains the main destination (Fonseca Flores, 2012).
In this chapter, we will analyze the different events the country has witnessed in the past decades, which may have influenced the changes in the migration behavior. For this, many factors will be taken into consideration, such as taking the high levels of persistent poverty results of structural adjustment programs since the 1990s, the effects caused by Hurricane Mitch, the high rates of violence caused by the proliferation of transnational criminal organizations and gangs.
4.1. History of Hondura’s First Waves of Migration
The migration patterns of Honduras present different particularities with respect to other countries of the region especially in the case of mass migration. When it come to the mass migration towards the United States can easily be classified under three major waves dating as early as the 1940s and 1950s.
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First wave (Before 1970): Banana Republic5
The origin of Honduras migration patterns was conditioned by the connections linked to banana trade and the opportunities it represented; The relationship of the banana economy with ports on the east coast of the United States started a labor migration between these two countries. This eventually made Honduras the number one emigrating country in the region during the 1960s (UNDP, 2006; Fonseca Flores, 2013). This first Honduran diaspora in United States settled in New Orleans and later New York since the former was the port of entry for bananas central to the United States market, and the headquarters of banana companies operating in Honduras (UNDP, 2006). The primary reason of the first Honduran diaspora was to supplement the economy by subsistence goods from abroad. With the strikes in the banana companies, migration intensified, only this time the major reason was employment. By the 1970s, migration of Hondurans to the United states had become part of the culture, especially among Garifunas (Ibid).
Second Wave (1980-1990): Economic Crisis
In the 1970s and 1980s, while its neighboring countries North and South were suffering from internal armed conflicts Honduras became a country of immigration when large numbers of people from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua start fleeing armed conflicts in search of refuge (OIM & Others 2011; Fonseca, Flores, 2012).
5In political Science, the term Banana Republic refers to a country that is politically unstable and has its economy highly dependent on one export and dominated by foreign interests. The term was originally used in a 1902 fiction book by
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However, Honduras, like all countries in Central America, went through a process of changes in the economic structure after the crisis of the 1980s. Consequences of the crisis of the 80s and of structural adjustment programs established under the policies of the Washington Consensus promoted the deregulation, liberalization and privatization economies, generating a structural transformation of economies within which migration would be an integral part (OIM & Others, 2011). In the particular case of Honduras the economic crisis easily associated directly to two different internal and external factors; the rigidity of the productive apparatus, focused primarily on exports of products (bananas and coffee) and insufficient domestic savings. These two conditions the financial situation became particularly difficult in the late 1980s (Carranza & Chang, 2002). After the 1980s, the crisis was not over, it only intensified in the next decade. During this period the region experienced the final collapse of the traditional agricultural exports model and, the emergence of a new economic model which meant restructurings labor markets (Segovia, 2004).
Third Wave (1998): Hurricane Mitch
Despite the economic hardship of the early 1990s, by 1998, Honduras had favorable economic developments (Carranza & Chang, 2002). Unfortunately, this was interrupted in October 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, a disaster unprecedented in history of the Region and, considered, at that time, as the worst disaster in Latin America in the last two hundred years (UNDP, 2006).
The direct effects of hurricane Mitch in Honduras resulted in approximately 7000 dead, 11,000 missing, some two million homeless, 35,000 destroyed homes and 50,000
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homes partially affected (UNDP, 2006). Additionally, levels of unemployment increase and so did the transfer of workers from formal to informal employment which lead to the increase of poverty, especially in the rural areas (Carranza & Chang, 2002). Additionally The estimates at the end of September showed GDP growth of 5.1 percent, which was hampered by the damage caused by the hurricane, to the extent that GDP fell 2.7 percent (Ibid).
Hurricane Mitch marked the starting point of the rapid increase of migration in the country. Available data show that United States is the country which mostly demonstrates the general emigration dynamics of the Honduras’ diaspora. It is believed the foreign policy of the United States and the links established from of these relationships stimulate the migration propensity (Carranza & Chang, 2002). During the 1990s, the biggest emigration of Hondurans was to United States where it was found that 108,923 Hondurans resided in this Country. When it Comes to Mexico and Central America, Nicaragua was the country with the highest number of Honduran-born population, which is particularly interesting since the 1990s were a period of high migration from Nicaragua due to economic factors (CELADE, 2000)
Table 4.1 Honduran Born Population Residing in Foreign Countries (1970-1990)
Country of Residence
1970s 1980s 1990s
United States 36,987 72,627 154,181
El Salvador 14, 290 - 8,666
Nicaragua 6, 919 - 9, 473
Guatemala 6, 231 5,326 4,634
Source: CELADE Census for MILA project. Available at:
http://www.cepal.org/celade/proyectos/migracion/imila00e.html
Immigrants in the United States, 2010: A Profile of America's Foreign-Born Population
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