Better Insight into Complex, At-Times Contradictory Migration Narratives in Northern Central America Could Improve Policymaking

WASHINGTON, DC — A set of interconnected, yet sometimes contradictory, narratives has developed to explain what drives migration from, through and back to northern Central America, with effects on how best to manage increasingly complex movements. Facing mounting U.S. pressure to stem sizeable irregular migration, governments in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are focusing their messaging on enforcement and addressing the “root causes” of migration, with policymakers vacillating between discouraging irregular migration and encouraging movement through legal pathways. At the same time, narratives in many local communities portray emigration as an economic lifeline, rite of passage and source of pride.

These narratives can have a major impact on whether policies deliver on their goals, a new study out today from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), RAND Corporation, Metropolitan Group and National Immigration Forum finds. The report, Migration Narratives in Northern Central America: How Competing Stories Shape Policy and Public Opinion in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, examines narratives in northern Central America from 2018 to 2022, as well as U.S. and Mexican narratives focused on the region.

Most studies of public opinion and narratives around migration focus mainly on perceptions in migrant-receiving communities. Much less work has been done in regions experiencing long-standing patterns of outmigration to understand how narratives about migration in all its forms fit together and reinforce (or compete) with one another, in particular as migration becomes more complex and more contested.

The report finds that the Central American migration narratives, which are seldom completely positive or negative and gain prominence at different times, can have a profound impact on the shaping of policies, their effectiveness and public reactions to policy change.

With an estimated 10 percent of Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans living in the United States and remittances representing as much as one-quarter of GDP for each country, migration is woven into the region’s fabric in complex and changing ways.

Where once the conversation focused overwhelmingly on emigration, northern Central America is experiencing increasing transit migration from South America and the Caribbean and sizeable return of its emigrants—introducing new challenges for countries with varying capacities to handle immigration enforcement, humanitarian protection and reintegration.

Based on an extensive analysis of government policy papers, news articles, international and nongovernmental organization reports and public opinion polls, the study presents ten key findings. Among them:

• Narratives are often in conflict, with many migrants and their families viewing emigration as a critical lifeline while governments at times perceive it as a destabilizing threat due to the state’s failure to provide for its own citizens.
• Core values such as honor and dignity are invoked by governments and migrant communities in both positive and negative narratives about emigration.
• Government narratives attempting to deter migration are often misaligned with migrants’ reasons for leaving.
• Messaging campaigns that tout economic opportunities at home may exaggerate the scale and speed of development investments' success.
• Official narratives promoting legal migration options clash with migrants' perceptions of the viability of these avenues as alternatives to irregular movement.
• Returnees trigger many of the same threat narratives commonly applied to foreigners, leading to instances of “othering.”

The study offers three principles for leveraging migration narratives to improve policymaking. First, effective policy development requires an understanding of how narratives are received by different actors, as perceptions around change can be almost as important as actual change. Second, policies aimed at altering behavior should align with community narratives and address the underlying reasons for migration rather than relying on fear-based deterrence messaging. Finally, national narratives can be influenced by regional and global framing of migration, emphasizing the need to consider how narratives intersect.

“As movements within and across northern Central America become both more complex and more contested, it is important to track how stories along the entire migration continuum intersect, contradict or compound each other, and how they influence both policy decisions and how policies are received by the communities they affect,” the researchers write.

Read the report here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/migration-narratives-central-america.

For an earlier report by the research partners examining how immigration narratives take hold and spread, check out: How We Talk about Migration: The Link between Migration Narratives, Policy, and Power.