This school aims to keep young Guatemalans from migrating. They don’t know it’s funded by the U.S. government.

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As migration from Central America surges, a school funded by the U.S. government in a Guatemalan village aims to give youth the job skills to be successful in their own country. Will it keep them from heading north?

In a mountain village where every week people leave for the United States, the school broadcasts its message in its name: el Centro Quédate — the Stay Here Center.

A person walks on the street near the Centro Quédate, or Stay Here Center, in Santa Maria Visitacion, Guatemala. Students there learn skills intended to encourage them to stay in Guatemala rather than migrate to the United States. President Trump said last month he would cancel aid to those three countries — to punish them, he said, for not doing enough to stop migration.

Still, the school serves as a tiny flicker of hope in Santa Maria Visitacion, where for decades migration was taken as a granted, the only way out of grinding poverty. Now teenagers have at least the impression of a choice. Maybe they could open a barber shop. Maybe they could repair computers or work with tourists.The students want to stay in Guatemala, if they can. In this village, like many in Central America, migration is a last resort.

The conversations happen everywhere — in the town hall, in schools, on the ancient American school buses that carry Guatemalans from one village to the next.It’s a town where migration is part of the fabric of daily life — a journey most everyone has tried or at least considered.“We know everyone wants to leave this place,” said Marcos Ixtamer, the school’s director. “That’s why we’re here.”

Michael Clemens, a fellow at the Center for Global Development, says the approach “gets it backward.”In much of the developing world, money sent home by family and friends abroad provides a crucial economic foundation. In Guatemala, these remittances account for more than 11 percent of GDP. “These are small towns,” Ixtamer said. “It’s not hard for us to find kids who are getting ready to leave or who are thinking about it.”

On a recent Tuesday, he walked along a highway in a tiny village called Patzij, a smattering of small homes connected by a narrow dirt path. Subsistence farming is pretty much the only job here. Pérez pulled out a photocopy of the Stay Here Center’s recruitment survey. Marroquín sat on the floor.“She hasn’t tried to go to the United States, but she wants to, right?” he asked.“She knows where her dad is?”Pérez took notes. He knew that a child with a father in the United States is more likely to try to migrate at some point.“She says she going to go,” Marroquín said. “I tell her no.

 

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Well, since you blasted it out there, they probably know now🙄

Are you going to spend as much effort tracking down who is funding the caravans before they leave Guatemala? Nope, because truth dies in the WAPO newsroom.

Well we've outsourced jobs to china, why not central america? 45's ties are made in china, Ivanka's clothes too. Let's put those jobs closer to home to solve the migration problem.

IE: taxpayers

What's the point of posting a story on a free platform if people can't read it? Bezos is one of the wealthiest people in the world. I guess he doesn't believe in access to information.

They will annex California back in 15 years. I have no doubt about it.

I saw a small migrant family come near the Catholic church today in San Diego; sat on the floor. In 45 minutes they were taken in.

Propaganda

Say what? Does the GOP know? Do TheDemocrats know? I’m guessing not. They can’t even investigate their own job descriptions.

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