I am working on a Project about the wages of Guatemalan workers in Chiapas, Mexico and I find that Guatemalans earn higher wages than native workers, which is surprising to me.
Dear Liliana,
I think it is important to determine which socio-economic bracket of the Guatemalan migrant population in Chiapas you intend to examine. As it is, I think the research question is rather broad.
Guatemalan immigration to Mexico dates back to the days of the Guatemalan Civil War (1954-1996), where it is estimated that about 200,000 Guatemalans fled to Mexico to escape the generalised state of violence, dispossession and ethnic warfare. It is important to foreground, however, that today there are still 27,000 stateless Guatemalans in Mexico (mostly in the state of Chiapas). For these stateless Guatemalan migrants in Mexico, access to the most basic services like healthcare, free education and job security is far from a reality. In addition, their stateless condition leaves makes them even more vulnerable to crime, violence and exploitation by Mexican state parties, employers, corporations and gangs.
I do think that you need to take this wretched condition of the stateless Guatemalans in consideration in your research.
Apart from the concrete case of stateless Guatemalans in Chiapas, Guatemalan migrants are mainly employed in the agricultural sector. In most cases, they are registered as 'visitantes agrícolas' in the coffee and sugar cane plantations. Despite the repeated agreements signed between the Mexican and Guatemalan governments to fund better living conditions for Guatemalan agricultural workers, accommodation facilities in fincas and haciendas remain inhumane and despicable.
Regards,
Are you considering the benefits from unpaid work accruing to Mexican families, derived from members of the household?
Are you taking into account benefits to Mexicans from transfer payments, such as Prospera and Seguro Popular?
Thank you very much to Alejandra and Félix. You point out very important issues that I need to take into account. My results are only for the state of Chiapas and most of the workers I analyze work in the agricultural sector. Maybe when I start studying the whole country and other sectors I will find more standard results of immigrant workers earning less than native workers. I will definitly consider other labor and social aspects regarding Guatemalans in Mexico in my research.
What about chiapanecos working not in Chiapas? Both in Mexico and abroad?
Thank you Roberto!!. I think the labor conditions of Chiapanecos outside Chiapas depend on the markets they get inserted. It would be really interesting to analyze how they perform relative to other workers in Mexico and in the US, because given their indigenous background, it is very likely that they suffer discrimination; something that Centro Espinosa Yglesias has been studying for a long time.
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