[ad_1]
By Laura Gottesdiener and Daina Beth Solomon
SALTILLO, Mexico, Nov 24 (Reuters) – On a current manufacturing facility shift within the northern Mexican metropolis of Saltillo, Honduran refugee Walter Banegas extracted a steaming-hot piece of molded steel destined for a road lamp from a die-casting machine.
Banegas, 28, stated he first fled to the U.S. as a young person to keep away from being recruited by a strong drug gang, solely to be deported in 2014. He re-entered planning to hunt asylum in 2020, and was deported once more.
So when Banegas fled gang threats in Honduras as soon as extra in 2021, he set his sights not on the US, however Mexico. He was granted refugee standing in January and with help from a United Nations refugee program, relocated to Saltillo and was paired with a job at Tempo Industries, a Michigan-based steel casting producer with vegetation within the U.S. and Mexico.
Lengthy often called a rustic of emigration and transit, Mexico within the final 5 years has grow to be a vacation spot for a small however rising variety of refugees, attracted by a much less restrictive asylum system than within the U.S. in addition to plentiful jobs as a result of nation’s labor scarcity.
Banegas stated he’s incomes about $800 a month at Tempo Industries – lower than he thought he would make within the U.S. however sufficient to ship a minimum of $50 a month dwelling to his household. He will get alongside together with his Mexican coworkers, he stated, and he is proud his six-month-old son, David, is a Mexican citizen.
“I really feel at peace right here,” he stated. “It is not essential to go to the US. You may as well get forward right here, in Mexico.”
‘VERY SOLID OPTION’
A decade in the past, a number of hundred individuals yearly acquired asylum in Mexico. By 2021, the quantity rose to 27,000, based on Mexico’s refugee company. Mexico is on observe this 12 months to approve a minimum of 20,000 asylum circumstances, with many of the arrivals from Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador and Cuba.
The overwhelming majority of migrants who enter Mexico proceed north towards the U.S., posing challenges for the Biden administration. The U.S. logged greater than 700,000 particular person asylum claims final 12 months.
However the head of the U.N. refugee company (UNHCR) in Mexico, Giovanni Lepri, stated Mexico is turning into a “very stable choice” for refugees, partly due to its excessive labor wants.
Mexico has a couple of million job openings nationwide, based on enterprise affiliation Coparmex, and employers within the tourism, agricultural, transportation, and manufacturing industries typically wrestle to seek out staff.
In accordance with a Coparmex survey of greater than 2,500 companies launched in July, 85% of employers in manufacturing report hassle discovering staff, greater than in every other sector.
Anticipated progress in “nearshoring,” as firms relocate to Mexico to be nearer to U.S. clients, might deepen these labor shortages, based on Mexican manufacturing affiliation INDEX.
U.S., Mexican and U.N. officers have referred to as for regional cooperation to assist migrants resettle in locations reminiscent of Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia, aiming to scale back unlawful migration to the U.S.
The migration director for Mexico’s overseas ministry, Arturo Rocha, stated the federal government is concentrated on increasing work visa applications and linking employers with job-seeking migrants, particularly “to leverage nearshoring.”
Mexico is working with Guatemala’s authorities to deliver as much as 20,000 staff to Mexico yearly, with an goal of ultimately increasing this system to Honduras and El Salvador.
Jose Medina Mora, the top of Coparmex, praised the U.N. program that helped Banegas, and urged the Mexican authorities to increase work visa applications so extra migrants might be rapidly matched with employers.
“It could assist, particularly given this actuality of job openings that we will not cowl,” he stated.
The U.N. program helps refugees relocate from southern Mexico, the place most full their asylum course of, to cities in central and northern Mexico, offering money grants and help with job placements and accessing daycare, colleges and healthcare. It helped pair 5,500 refugees with a job in 2022, and practically 3,000 to date this 12 months.
‘COULDN’T ASK FOR MORE’
When Fernando Hernandez, 24, fled Honduras for southern Mexico final 12 months together with his companion and younger daughter, his plan was to traverse the nation as rapidly as potential to succeed in the U.S.
Then he noticed social media posts of kids drowning within the river on the U.S. border. He imagined two-year-old Kaitlyn getting swept away. And he considered his mom, who migrated to the U.S. in 2017, dwelling in a trailer park in Texas, forking over most of her wage for lease.
Hernandez determined to hunt asylum in Mexico. After it was authorised in February, the U.N. helped the household relocate to the northern industrial metropolis of Monterrey and Hernandez started working at a comfort retailer.
Hernandez rapidly realized that there have been job openings in all places, he stated. He upgraded to a manufacturing facility, then turned a cook dinner at a P.F. Chang’s restaurant, incomes about $225 every week.
“Right here we’ve got all the things: a home, meals and household,” he stated. “I could not ask for extra.” (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico Metropolis and Laura Gottesdiener in Saltillo; Modifying by Christian Plumb and Suzanne Goldenberg)
[ad_2]
Source
