The U.S.-Honduras Remittance Corridor
51
migration. 12 The majority of Garífunas left for the United States for education and employment and continue to travel back and forth; but the majority return home at some time in their life. The Garífuna maintain the largest and most effective diaspora network of all Honduran migrants in the United States. Fifty Garífuna organizations have been identified; some promote culture and ethnic identity, others get involved in the development of their hometowns.13 The Garífuna have a proven history of supporting hometown development through collective remittances. Half of the 48 communities have a corresponding Hometown Association in the United States, albeit the majority acting on an informal basis. Since the 1970s, Garífuna migrants have been concerned with development of their villages through infrastructure development, mutual aid societies, and the celebration of Garífuna culture. They collect monthly contributions of their members and raise funds through different activities (benefit events, raffles, and visits to casinos).14 Summary of the Three Cases
Lessons from all three cases suggest that understanding subnational remittance corridors and their underlying transnational migrant networks helps design and implement more efficient outreach and financial inclusion yet from a low initial scale. A subnational perspective helps turn informal migration patterns to local development opportunities, builds trust, and engages key stakeholders at a local level (Table 4.1). The challenge is to scale up development initiatives by leveraging unique features of transnational networks and a supportive overall national policy framework. Box 4.6. Criteria for the Emergence of Hometown Associations Manuel Orozco (2007) points out four criteria that determine the emergence of Hometown Associations and their involvement in the country of origin: (a) the level of community consciousness of migrants, especially of their elite; (b) the level of outreach of the homeland government; (c) the perception of migrants by the society in the homeland; and (d) the relationship between the governments of the country of origin and destination. The following table shows criteria for the emergence of transnational engagement of the Honduran Diaspora according to their peculiar migration patterns: Olancho
Intibucá
Garífunas
Honduras
Level of community consciousness of Honduran migrants Honduran (or local) government encouraging diaspora identification
Low
Medium
High
Low
Not existent
First tentative
Low and with political bias toward party affiliation
Perception of migrants and its impact by society in Honduras Relationship between Honduran and U.S. government
Negative
Negative
Punctual tentative via Garífuna organization in Honduras Negative
-
-
-
Negative
Focused on the annual prolongation of TPS Permits
Source: Authors.
WP_177_web_11-03-09.pdf 67
11/2/2009 8:17:51 PM