Immigration Enforcement, Parent-Child Separations and Intent to Remigrate by Central American Deportees

Immigration Enforcement, Parent-Child Separations and Intent to Remigrate by Central American Deportees

Monday, 11 May 2015 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Venue: 
Pavilion Room, St Antony's College
Speaker(s): 
Professor Susan Pozo (Western Michigan University)
Convenor: 
Dr Halbert Jones
Series: 
North American Studies Seminar Series

Susan Pozo is Professor of Economics at Western Michigan University. Her research interests include remittances, undocumented migration, and underground economic activity. In light of the unprecedented recent increase in the flow of migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, this seminar will analyse the impact of US immigration enforcement on parent-child separations among Central American deportees along with its implications for deportees’ intentions to remigrate to the United States. Using survey data, Prof Pozo finds that interior enforcement raises the likelihood of parent-child separations, and that parents who are separated from their young children are more likely to report the intention to return to the United States, presumably undocumented, in the future. By increasing parent-child separations, US interior enforcement may be counterproductive in deterring repetitive unauthorized crossings by Central American deportees.