This is a tribute to the work of Monica Petersen in child welfare.
She died, in Haiti, in 2016.
I am still on a mission...
She died, in Haiti, in 2016.
I am still on a mission...
By Monica Petersen
You won’t hear about it in sound bites of coverage on the evening news, but every American should
understand these seven facts about the 63,000+ kids that “showed up in the backyard” and need their plight acknowledged.
You won’t hear about it in sound bites of coverage on the evening news, but every American should
understand these seven facts about the 63,000+ kids that “showed up in the backyard” and need their plight acknowledged.
- Illicit markets thrive where licit markets have been destroyed. Despite the façade of“free-trade” in Central America (or anywhere, for that matter), international trade is far from free flowing. Illicit markets are the natural comparative advantage for sustaining local livelihoods, and this is apparent in the homelands of border youth and children.
- Criminal gangs often establish the supply niches for these illicit markets. Some are highly organized and violent cartels but most are loosely based. Minors in Central American conflict zones are at a higher risk for various types of child trafficking. Youth and children trafficked for gang soldiering and/or drug mules are an increased concern in the present context. Returning minors at the border to their homelands subjects them to these risks of human trafficking. Individuals caught in repeated cycles of fleeing and trafficking are common when violence and poverty occur together, making repatriation to these regions an unsustainable solution.
- Hasty deportations of unaccompanied Central American minors violate international children’s rights.
- The international principle of non-refoulment is being disregarded by the United States government.
- The U.S. has a sixty-year history of provoking regional instability in Central America.
- Research overwhelmingly shows increased border militarization is an ineffective,everywhere in the world.
- “Border Children” is a one-dimensional label.
The United States has yet to develop an immigration strategy that will appropriately address the interdependent forces behind what is now a worldwide phenomenon – the largest, global displacement of human beings in all of history. That’s a big statement for U.S. leadership to continue neglecting. Awareness of the tremendous underpinnings of the current border crisis is a vital first step for the American public to take. Without citizen demands for policy reforms – of both a broken immigration system and flawed model of international development – it is unlikely the entrenched roots of Central American oppression will shift within U.S. bureaucracy. The youth at the border are merely one casualty of this.
*Monica Petersen graduated in 2014 with an MA in International Development from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. She is currently a research intern at the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking in Denver and a research assistant for The Human Trafficking Center at DU. This blog does not necessarily reflect the position of any other person(s) or organization(s), and is the author’s work alone.
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