Doc 1.docx - A new report about migration co-authored by...

A new report about migration, co-authored by MIT scholars, shows
that economic distress is the main factor pushing migrants from
Central America to the U.S. — and highlights the personal costs borne
by people as they seek to move abroad.
“The core issue is economics, at the end of the day, and this is where
policymakers need to be focusing their energy,” says Sarah Williams,
an MIT professor who helped produce the report. “At the heart of
what’s causing migration is that people don’t have enough money to
provide for their basic needs.”
The study, based on a unique survey of over 5,000 people in El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, finds a sharp increase in the
number of people considering migrating after nearly two years of the
Covid-19 pandemic. About 43 percent of people surveyed in 2021
were considering migrating, compared to 8 percent in 2019. That
change comes as food insecurity in the region soars: The UN’s World
Food Program (WFP) estimates that 6.4 million people in the three
countries were suffering from food insecurity in 2021, up from 2.2
million in 2019.
Survey respondents cited low wages, unemployment, and minimal
income levels as factors increasing their desire to emigrate — ahead
of reasons such as violence or natural disasters. In contrast to the 43
percent of people who were considering migrating, only 3 percent of
people in the survey said they had made concrete plans to migrate.