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Health Concerns for Migrants
Given the sorts of health issues that migrants are subjected to before their departure, during their travels, and after arriving or being detained, the services that Casa del Migrante offers are crucial. The population of migrants that I encountered was a mix between migrants who had been deported from Mexico, migrants who were choosing to return to their country of origin, and migrants who were in route to North America. While most migrants that came through Casa del Migrante while I was there were healthy, there were cases in which migrants were mentally or physically ill. The Casa was able to help these migrants to some extent with seeking medical attention or providing medicine for less serious illnesses. However, their presence at the shelter was representative of many of the health problems that Central American migrants face or on their journeys.
Pre-Departure
The migrants at La Casa del Migrante in Tecun Uman are, for the most part, irregular. Before traveling, the main factors that influence their health “include biological characteristics, local chronic disease patterns and pathogens, environmental factors, and political and personal circumstances (e.g., human rights violations, interpersonal violence)” (Zimmerman 2011). For many irregular migrants, particularly economic migrants or asylum seekers, the poverty or human rights violations they experience before departing puts them in an unhealthy physical or mental state to begin. The fact that they travel without legal documents to work or reside in Mexico and the United States exposes them to a whole new set of health problems due to the means they have to take in order to travel. Likewise, the vast majority of migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala at the Casa were migrating as a desperate attempt to combat the life of poverty at home. Their poverty, contributed to by a lack of decent jobs in their home countries, left them with fewer resources with which to begin. Thus, instead of taking safer routes or traveling with a coyote that knows the way to El Norte, they must resort to more dangerous modes of transportation with less knowledge of their predicament. Travel is considered to be particularly difficult on the health of human trafficking victims, many of whom must cross borders illegally or endure sexual violence while being forcibly displaced (Zimmerman 2011). The desperation of migrants like those that passed through the shelter in Tecun Uman makes them especially vulnerable to human traffickers because they are more likely to take the opportunities offered to them by strangers.
Jobs in El Norte
The types of jobs available to low-skilled, undocumented migrants are often those that people in the host country do not want either due to low pay or the risk of injury. These migrants are more often exploited at work with poor working conditions or being underpaid, but their fear of job loss and deportation prevents them from combating this exploitation. “Migrant day labourers are often exposed to a variety of work-related hazards (such as chemicals, pesticides, dust, and other toxic substances) without proper protective equipment, compensation insurance, or on-the-job training (Benach 2011). During my time in Tecun Uman, I encountered several migrants returning from the United States that had burns on their hands and arms from the chemicals they had to use while working in roofing and construction.
Impact of Migration on Mental Health
In addition to the physical health risks that migrants face during travel and in their destination country, mental health issues often plague migrants, especially those that are detained, abused, or experience serious trauma. The mental health of both undocumented migrants and asylum seekers with temporary protection is typically worse than that of refugees with permanent residency and documented migrants because they are constantly in a state of insecurity, fearing that they will be returned to their home country. Irregular migrants that are confined in detention centers often experience human rights abuses at the hands of the authorities. In the United States, detained migrants are typically held in state prisons with no separation between them and convicted individuals. Immigration detention often poses mental health risks for migrants, as “confinement, isolation, lack of freedom, perceptions of being arbitrarily punished, uncertainty about the future, and fear of being returned to situations of danger all converge to create a pattern of deteriorating mental health” (Steel 2011).
Malnutrition and Poor Habits
Considering the population of migrants that I worked with in Tecun Uman, the majority did not exhibit visible signs of poor physical health, although some had clear mental problems and many were malnourished. The diet of the impoverished people of Guatemala typically consists of some combination of beans, rice, and tortilla; thus, the migrants did not get necessary nutrients. Many migrants returning from the United States also fall into unhealthy lifestyles. They purchase the cheapest foods to save money for remittances or other living expenses in the United States, while others are negatively affected by their limited access to health care (Gushulak 2011). Still some returning migrants that I met in Tecun Uman fell into unhealthy habits by spending money on alcohol as a means of drowning their sorrows.