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Central American Diplomats Urge Compassion in Child Migration Crisis

Cindy Arnson

This article, which addresses the U.S. and Central American response to the crisis stemming from the recent wave of unaccompanied minors migrating to the United States, quotes Latin American Program Director Cynthia J. Arnson's remarks during the July 24, 2014 event "Migration of Central American Minors: Causes and Solutions."

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“I can recall no time since the Central American wars of the 1980s when so much U.S. media attention has been paid to this region,” Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, said during a July 24 discussion attended by 250 people crammed into the center’s sixth-floor auditorium and two overflow rooms. “These children come from an extremely violent region, where they probably perceive that the risk of traveling to the U.S. is preferable to remaining at home. Poverty levels have gone down, but 45 percent of Salvadorans, 55 percent of Guatemalans and 67 percent of Hondurans are still poor. There is no magic bullet to address these problems, which have taken decades, if not centuries, to develop.”

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Click here to read the full article.

A video of the Latin American Program event "Migration of Central American Minors: Casues and Solutions" is available here.

About the Author

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia J. Arnson

Distinguished Fellow and Former Director, Latin America Program
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more