Through a USAID program in Peru, more than 137,000 Venezuelan migrants and community members got access to financial services by opening a savings account or obtaining credit. Pictured are a participant in the program who is opening an account with a bank.
A Salvadoran migrant participating in the H-2 temporary visa program works at a construction firm in Utah marking newly made trusses for a building.
Youth from high migration areas of Guatemala learn car mechanic skills, through a program providing access to education, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities while providing basic life skills so that they can actively contribute to their communities.

Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean

The scale of migration and displacement in the Western Hemisphere demands a shared and sustained commitment from governments across the region to provide regular status and integrate migrant and refugee populations into host communities. Currently, over 20 million individuals from Latin America and the Caribbean are forcibly displaced or stateless in the Western Hemisphere. Over 9.5 million of them have crossed international borders. In the last decade, nearly four times the number of LAC migrants were displaced across international borders within the LAC region than were displaced to the United States. To meet this challenge, USAID takes a three-pronged approach.

Addressing the Root Causes of Irregular Migration from Central America

USAID is working to address the root causes of irregular migration by tackling corruption and violence and creating economic opportunity - making it possible for more people to stay and thrive in their communities.

  • Under the Biden Administration’s Root Causes Strategy, USAID has made significant investments to address the instability, lack of security, and lack of opportunity that drive irregular migration from Central America. These investments are helping to create job opportunities, provide new skills for workers, improve citizen security, and increase transparency and accountability in government.
  • USAID coordinates closely with U.S. government counterparts, international organizations, the private sector and local stakeholders in support of the Root Causes Strategy, along with the Collaborative Migration Management Strategy, and the Central America Forward initiative.

Resources

Lawful Labor Pathways

USAID is working to expand access to lawful labor pathways. Lawful labor pathways present a viable alternative to irregular migration, while also helping address unmet labor needs facing economies in our hemisphere and beyond.

  • By connecting labor supply and demand, employers, workers, and communities can capitalize on win-win-win solutions that help workers build skills and income, help economies grow by filling labor gaps, and bring much needed skills development and resource investment to home communities. It also helps reduce the need for individuals to consider dangerous, irregular migration when economic opportunities are scarce at home.
  • USAID provides ongoing technical assistance to the national ministries in northern Central America to ethically recruit, vet, and support their citizens’ access to temporary work abroad opportunities. In three years, we have tripled the number of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans able to work legally in the United States on H-2 temporary visas.

Integration

USAID is supporting countries in the region to integrate and reintegrate migrants into communities.

  • USAID has provided development assistance to:
    • Support the regularization and long-term integration of migrants in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in South America and Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize in Central America. Programs help migrants access documentation, healthcare, education, workforce development and job placement, credential validation and psychosocial support through one-stop-shops and inclusive support that helps migrants and host community members alike.
    • Support the sustainable reintegration of returned migrants and their communities in Northern Central America, helping them rebuild their lives through expanded access to services, including education, employment and livelihoods, and psychosocial support. USAID is especially focused on addressing the needs of vulnerable groups like unaccompanied children and family units, to ensure children are reintegrated into the formal education system and receive the support they need to succeed.
    • Strengthen national capacities to provide protection services for victims of trafficking in persons and Unaccompanied Migrant Children.

Resources

General Migration Resources