Supplementary Materials
Belize (1996)-
Capital: Belmopan
Population: 206, 963
Gross Domestic Product: 620.1 Million USD
Unemployment: 12.5%
Personal Remittances: 2.2%
GNI per Capita: $4, 360
Current Events-
The historical context is important in understanding the reasons behind why things happened. Pertinent events include the creation and possible ending of DACA, immigration to Belize in the 90's, and Congress increasing immigration to the US. These seemingly unrelated events influenced the future of many Belizeans.
DACA stands for 'Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals'. It was created to give immigrant youth work permits and protection from deportation. It is required that it is renewed every two years. In September of 2017, Trump announced that DACA would end. The court is giving the Government ninety days to come up with legitimate reasons for abolishing the program. In the event that they cannot, the Government must begin renewing and receiving DACA applications once again.
The largest emigration of Belizeans, which started in the 1980s continued into the early 1990s, coincided with a massive influx of immigrants into Belize. The influx was in result of political and economic trouble in nearby countries. Most of these immigrants came from either Guatemala or El Salvador. By 1993, they made up 13% of the entire Belizean population. Belize received such a large amount of migrants as a result of government policies concerning migrants and the amount of agricultural labor jobs that Belizeans found unappealing. In the 1980s, on average, 3,050 would migrate to Belize each year. In the 1990s that statistic became 2,181 a year. As Central Americans entered Belize, Belizeans most commonly emigrated to either the US, Canada, or the UK. As 5 % moved to surrounding countries in Central America, 84% would migrate to the United States. There seemed to be a positive correlation between Central Americans moving into Belize and Belizeans moving out.The cause of this is suggested to be a result of the immigrants willingness to work for lower wages. In the 90s a large amount of the immigrants came from China and Taiwan. To be precise, about 13,000 Asian immigrants were approved for permanent residency between 1990 and 1994. That is around 6% of the population at the time. Belize accepted a large amount of immigrants to counteract the imbalance created from the large amount of emigrants. Between the people migrating to Belize and emigrating, the population increased by 2.6% each year. In 1995, migrants made up 17.5% of the total population of Belize. In 2000, 50% of emigrants held high school degrees, 64% had post-high school education, and 66% were tertiary-educated. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, as people immigrated to Belize, more Belizeans migrated elsewhere.
In 1990, congress increased legal immigration through an act called IMMACT 90 (Also known as the Immigration Act of 1990). The act increased the number of immigrant visas available as well as made permanent legal immigration easier to get by changing the preference categories. The amount of immigrants increased by 35% shortly after putting it into action proving it to be successful.
This historical background is imperative to fully understanding the motives behind people like Amin’s mother’s decision to migrate to the United States and Amin’s current immigration situation. It is important to understand what DACA is and how it might end, immigration to and emigration from Belize in the 80s and 90's, and how congress increased immigration to the US using the Immigration Act of 1990. Without knowledge on these three events one would have no option but to take Amin’s words at face value. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but this can hinder us from understanding the full picture. Understanding the whole picture is crucial when learning about migration.