New Study: Spikes in Violence Are Major Driver of Child Immigration From Central America (ImmigrationProf Blog)

From the article:

While the dominant rhetoric around migration has focused on economic drivers, a new study today from Michael Clemens, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, quantifies for the first time just how much violence drives child migration – and finds that spikes in violence are, in fact, the main driver of child migration from Central America. The report, “Violence, Development, and Migration Waves: Evidence from Central American child migrant apprehensions” examines the relationships between violence, economics, and unaccompanied child (UAC) migration out of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—known as the Northern Triangle. Parts of this region suffer from some of the highest homicide rates on earth. Using previously unreleased data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, this new research shows that spikes in violence are the main driving factor behind unaccompanied child migration from municipalities in the Northern Triangle. Persistently poor employment conditions are also found to be a factor.

Read full article here.