Archive for the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Category

A Public Health Crisis Looms at the Intersection of Migration and Tropical Diseases – The Swaddle

This is the third report in a four-part series that explores the social determinants of living with and in proximity to lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease.

In the one year that Gyanchand has lived with lymphatic filariasis (filaria), hes traveled from Delhi to Rae Bareli, U.P., four times for treatment. I come here every three months for treatment because my family is here and they told me to get checked here when [I] first found swelling, he says.

A fruit and vegetable vendor in Delhi, Gyanchand lives alone and works in a crowded market teeming with stagnant puddles and mosquitoes. His only opportunity to receive medication, care, and comfort is at home in Rae Bareli, where his wife and children stay. He attempted to find help in Delhi but didnt know the city well enough to find it.

Travel back and forth between the locales has become an essential and expensive part of his life. A train ticket from Rae Bareli to Delhi costs up to Rs. 200 in the cheapest Second Seater Class Section, and a bus ticket costs half of that. A travel budget of Rs. 1000-2000 a year, needed to access medication, becomes a severe strain while also trying to pay for rent, food, and other living expenses with a daily-wage income. Travel is also tinged with discomfort, as the swollen legs and lesions that accompany filaria make walking difficult.

Gyanchands story intertwines two conditions that have become almost synonymous with neglect: tropical disease and migration. Migrants, new to a city and short of means, do not know the location to which they have shifted and do not have access to safe living conditions and urban healthcare systems that can aid the prevention and management of filaria. In contradiction to popular assumption, some migrants choose to travel back home to seek help from familiar, rural healthcare systems.

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When Climate Change Leads to Fear and Migration, Women Bear the Brunt

Here, it is key to understand what kind of migrants face this particular struggle. It is not the white-collar workers or the section of citizens who migrate for higher education, training and then move overseas for employment or high-end jobs, says Rinju Rasaily, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at Ambedkar University, Delhi.It is the insignificant bulk of the population who, given the rising needs of a neo-liberal world, undoubtedly triggered by poverty and despair, seek to migrate out of their villages and small towns for jobs, jobs that are precarious and thus uncertain; taking the risks of living in a city space for a better future.

According to Indias 2011 Census, more than 139 million internal migrants move around India, within and between states. Large, urban cities like Delhi and Mumbai attract most migrants, sharing a combined migrant population of 9.9 million between them.

Working-class migrants in big cities live and travel in highly clustered conditions close to open gutters all of which lead to a higher risk of exposure to filarial worm-carrying mosquitoes. This clustering is not a new phenomenon. As Indian cities grew, they attracted large numbers of migrants, especially after the 1940s, when the population in cities, according to the census, grew exponentially. Often poorer migrants settled in already populated areas of the city, creating pressures on existing drainage systems, says Aditya Ramesh, Ph.D., who researches water, infrastructures, and ecologies at the University of Manchester. The colonial government, when they started creating drainage systems from the 1850s, paid little attention to regions where the urban poor lived. They created drainage systems largely to protect British cantonments and to try and keep sewage out of these areas. Naalas (open gutters) therefore were the only affordable way in which dense urban settlements could dispose of waste. Considering the pressures on them, it is no surprise that as infrastructural systems, they are stressed.

Bear in mind as well, that the regions around the naalas (gutters) were often government or common land, and the only spaces where migrants could find a space to build a shanty, Ramesh adds.

A significant number of migrants originate from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, coincidentally two states that share a significant burden of filaria cases in India, alongside Jharkhand, West Bengal,Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.

Though working-class migrants face a higher risk of water-borne tropical diseases like filaria, they do not receive close healthcare attention. The vulnerability of migrants is unimaginable, given their working and living conditions. Data on health expenditure clearly state that the out-of-pocket [healthcare] expenditure is exorbitant in India. There is undoubtedly an enormous burden on government hospitals, dispensaries, health care centers, and mohalla clinics in Delhi, while the private health care services cater to the massive Indian middle class, Rasaily says. She adds that only a negligible percentage of urban migrants have health insurance, making it harder to access subsidized healthcare.

Work conditions may also force migrants to make choices under duress, choices that put their health at risk. Employment often involves long hours that lead to a deprioritization of seeking help. This means chronic conditions like filaria get further aggravated. There is also a large reliance of this section of our population on the un-registered medical practitioners who usually administer stronger dosage of medication for immediate relief, Rasaily says. Though immediate relief allows migrants to function, it eventually takes a serious toll on long-term health.

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This negotiation between work and health is not uncommon for individuals with filaria, as the disease is incurable and causes swollen limbs, flashes of pain, and reduced mobility. For working-class migrants, the drop in productivity is devastating, especially since most are paid by the day. Researchers have documented severe drops in filaria patients ability to perform domestic and economic labor in both Odisha and Tamil Nadu, with several cases leading to total disability.

The neglect of migrant workers with filariasis is as much a labor issue as it is a public health issue. Though trade unions have fought for decent working conditions for migrants in the past and helped create several equitable labor laws, there is no uniform health and safety law for working-class individuals yet; the laws that do exist are specific to certain industries (for instance, the Plantation Labour Act, 1951; the Mines Act, 1952).

As health care involves huge expenditure to the government, it has remained a central reason for the non-prioritization for the migrant population as well, Rasaily adds. In terms of intervention that could help migrant workers, I feel that a revisit of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service), 1979, is important. It is also crucial that there should be a budgetary enhancement towards all the state departments of labor so that labor laws could be enforced, data banks could be created, and timely interventions could be made for example, at inter-state borders, bus stands, railway stations, et cetera. And importantly, there should be inter-departmental sync, such as [between] Regional Labour Institutes, DGFASLI [Directorate General Factory Advice Services and Labor Institutes] that operate under the same ministry, i.e Labour and Employment, GOI.

While rural areas are small and close-knit, urban areas are vast and lonely.Rural migrants like Gyanchand face a significant loss in the absence of community support. Village kinship ties are important means to find employment and support in cities. In rural areas, there is also more familiarity and comfort in relying on support systems, like borrowing from friends and relatives, which is often not an option in an alien urban environment. As Gyanchand said in the beginning, he didnt just return to Rae Bareli because he couldnt findhelp in the city, he also returned because that is where his home and community are.

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A Public Health Crisis Looms at the Intersection of Migration and Tropical Diseases - The Swaddle

Oxfam responding to deadly wave of COVID-19 in India – Oxfam America

The latest wave of COVID-19 in India has created a severe humanitarian crisis. The country is struggling amidst a shortage of medical oxygen, hospital beds, ambulance vans, essential medicines, and basic equipment.

There are nearly four million active COVID-19 cases and more than 204,832 deaths across India. This second and more deadly wave of the coronavirus crisis in India is creating a rapidly evolving and grim situation. There are sporadic night curfews and lockdown-like measures across states that have once again triggered an exodus of migrant workers. As they jostle to catch the first train or bus home, most barely have the money to make this journey, but must try anyway to avoid a repeat of last year when they were left with no option but to walk thousands of miles in the scorching heat.

These migrant workers and many others who lost their jobs are still struggling to get back on their feet. Over the last year, Oxfam has been working to help people survive the initial crisis with food and clean water, sanitation, hygiene, cash, and protective equipment. We have assisted people in 16 states in India.

Oxfam is working with local organizations and government officials to assess the needs of people and public hospitals. As we raise funds to meet the increased demands in India, we are building on our program work over the last year, including:

In a crisis such as this, women and girls, the aged, people with disabilities, and other marginalized people will suffer the worst. As people grapple to make ends meet, Oxfam is working hard to ensure that inclusive relief efforts will continue to be at the heart of our program in India.

Globally, Oxfam is mobilizing resources to help people in India while also advocating for a Peoples Vaccine: a patent-free, mass produced, and fairly distributed vaccine available free of charge to everyone, rich and poor alike. In the United States, Oxfam is urging President Biden to temporarily waive intellectual property rules at the World Trade Organization to allow factories in India and other countries to produce more vaccine.

Fatality numbers are rising rapidly in India. Its a race against time to help as many people as possible. We urgently need your support.

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Oxfam responding to deadly wave of COVID-19 in India - Oxfam America

Artist recreates Satyajit Ray’s film posters on 100th birth anniversary to depict Covid crisis – India Today

Satyajit Ray had an inedible mark on the Indian cinema. His films are admired by cinephiles all over the world.

May 2 marks 100 years since Satyajit Ray was born, and to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary, an artist paid the legendary filmmaker a poignant and relevant tribute. A Mumbai-based artist named Aniket Mitra celebrated the historic day by reimagining Satyajit Ray's iconic film posters amid the Covid times.

Aniket Mitra used ten films by Satyajit Ray to depict the Covid-19 crisis going on in India. Posters of films like Pather Panchali, Devi, Nayak, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya, Mahanagar, Ashani Sanket and more, were used to show the citizens' struggle during the second wave of the deadly virus.

The poster of Pather Panchali shows a healthcare worker driving an ambulance while wearing a PPE suit. The poster of Devi shows a healthcare worker helping a newborn baby, both dressed in protective equipment.

The poster of Seemabaddha shows police officials, who have been working on the frontline during the pandemic, wearing face masks and a face shield. Jana Aranya shows pyres burning in a cemetery, showcasing the deaths due to Covid-19.

The poster of Mahanagar showed the oxygen supply crisis in India that has become the cause for many losing their lives during the second wave. The poster of Abhijan showed the migrant crisis.

Take a look at the poignant creations by Aniket Mitra:

Sharing the post on Facebook, Aniket Mitra said that given the current situation in the country, he was paying homage to the renowned filmmaker by highlighting the plight of the common man.

The posters created a storm on social media and earned praise from netizens. At the time of writing this article, the post had 4,000 likes and 3,200 shares.

India saw a slight dip in the daily Covid-19 cases on Monday as it registered over 3.68 lakh fresh cases and 3,417 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.

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Artist recreates Satyajit Ray's film posters on 100th birth anniversary to depict Covid crisis - India Today

The cost of success: What happens to West African migrants in Europe – Euronews

In the city of Brianon in eastern France, a group of people is searching for the heroes lost on their adventures. The migrants attempt to cross the Alps in below zero temperatures, without warm clothes and often without enough food.

Fana is only 18 but he feels he became a man at the age of 12 when he decided to go on an adventure and leave his home in Guinea, seeking a better life in Europe. Unlike our previous hero Mamadou, he made it to France. In this episode, we explore what happens to the tounkan namo, or the adventurers, who succeed. And the price of their success.

Cry Like a Boy is an original Euronews series and podcast that explores how the pressure to be a man can harm families and entire societies. Stay with us as we travel across the African continent to meet men who are defying centuries-old gender stereotypes and redefining their roles as men.

The podcast is available in French under the name Dans la tte des Hommes.

Listen to us on Castbox, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and dont hesitate to rate us or to leave a comment.

Danielle Olavario: Welcome to Cry Like a Boy, a podcast in which we travel to five African countries to tell extraordinary stories of ordinary men defying centuries-old stereotypes. Im Danielle Olavario.

In the previous episode, we told you the story of Mamadou Alpha, a young Guinean man who went on a dangerous migration journey called tounkan, or the adventure to find success in Europe.

In Guinea, this adventure is a rite of passage for some young men, who see the hardships and experiences they have on this journey as essential to becoming real men. Those who survive and make it, are treated as heroes, and those who fail, are shamed by their communities.

In Europe, the term adventure is often associated with great explorers, pioneers, and travelers hiking up mountains and sailing the great wide ocean to seek fortune.

Our story this week starts in the French Alps, where young men like Mamadou are crossing mountains. It is a different kind of adventure.

Its a quiet winter night and the snow is bright and crisp.

We are at the Italian border near the city of Brianon. This region has recently become a crossroad for illegal migrants from the Balkans, Middle East or Africa, seeking a better life in Western Europe.

The temperature has dropped below zero. The tall mountains seem dark and threatening, but Juliette, a 22-year-old photography student, knows these trails very well. Together with other locals, shes looking for people who might have gotten lost or injured.

Juliette:Some nights we get down with about 20 people, some nights no one.

Danielle Olavario: Juliette is part of the association Tous Migrants. An initiative that helps find the people who have been on the road for many days, sometimes months. Many of them have frostbite, some are seriously injured, most are exhausted.

In her backpack, there is always a first aid kit, hot beverages and candy bars.

Juliette:These people are not necessarily equipped for the cold, they dont always have hot drinks or food. We find people who are really cold. They haven't eaten much and have nothing to drink.

Danielle Olavario: Tous Migrants was founded in 2014 after the beginning of what politicians call the European migrant crisis when hundreds of thousands of people started arriving in Europe, gathering in huge migration camps in Greece or other parts of the continent.

Many try to escape these conditions, hoping to cross into Western Europe on foot. And Brianon, France, a city nestled in the Alps, has become one of the hubs for those who were injured or lost their way during their adventure, and cant quite continue the trip.

Juliette:It's not acceptable for us to let people die in the mountains, we don't want our mountains to become cemeteries. It's just not possible.

Danielle Olavario: Since 2017 more than 12 000 people have gone through Refuge Solidaire, another NGO inBrianon, helping migrants with medical care, shelter and papers.

But settling down isnt that simple. We met with one of these migrant travelers in Gap, France, the largest city in the Hautes Alpes, a French region that borders Italy and famous for its sports culture and beautiful nature.

Fana:My name is Syla Fana. I come from Guinea Conakry and I am 18-years-old.

Danielle Olavario: Fana left at a young age because he thought hed find better opportunities in Europe.

Fana:Apart from the family situation, when you see the political, socio-economic situation of your country, even if you're a kid, you can still have some thoughts. You think to yourself: why this? Why us?

You see that there are all these resources, but you are struggling, you don't live well, you live in misery.

Danielle Olavario: He decided to go on the adventure, by travelling from Guinea to France.

Fana:I left on my own at the age of 12. Can you imagine? It's crazy. I went to Mali from Guinea.

I met smugglers who actually take people from Mali to Algeria. In fact, I negotiated with them. I did all the necessary things with them. I left like that, country by country, country by country until I got to France.

Danielle Olavario: Fana is from Conakry, Guinea. And like Mamadou, he went on the migration route to Europe. With one crucial difference: he made it to the other side and now lives in France.

Fana:My family considers me a hero. The others? Maybe, who knows but I don't know.

There are many who are proud of you. There are also some who hate you because you have succeeded in your life.

Its calm here.

I've been living here for a few months and I think, yeah.

Danielle Olavario: Fana is wearing sunglasses, comfortable gray pants and a bright yellow hoodie. He seems confident and relaxed as we walk towards his apartment block. Hes been living in Gap for two years, but he has only recently moved to this residential area.

Fana is in an internat, a kind of public boarding school where he is learning to be a caretaker for the elderly. Most of the time he sleeps at school, but during breaks, he lives with a friend.

Their small studio is in slight disarray. A double bed takes most of the room and there are travel pictures of several people on the walls, but none are of Fana. You can tell that he doesnt spend much time in the apartment.

But he doesnt mind. He hasnt had a steady home for a really long time. The adventure wasnt so easy for him. He says his family considers him a hero, except that he prefers to hide from them, for now.

Fana:They haven't heard from me for a long time and that's normal. I would prefer it that way.

I prefer to hide well. When I have a better life I'll see my brothers, I'll do what I can for the others. For now, I have to concentrate on what I am doing.

Danielle Olavario: According to UNHCR, despite the coronavirus pandemic, over 41, 000 people arrived in Europe irregularly through Spain in 2020, undertaking the Mediterranean route. And Guineans were the second most numerous group of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa after Malians.

Anthropologist Julie Kleinman, author of the book Adventure Capital about illegal migrants in Paris says, the desire to leave home in some West African cultures is a coming of age rite, and succeeding means you are a man.

Julie Kleinman:In the 19th century there are many documented cases of leaving one's village to become a man. In most of West Africa, leaving and migrating is a kind of initiation rite through which one becomes a man.

Danielle Olavario: Fana says that already at the age of 12, boys in Guinea feel like grown-ups.

Fana:He feels helpless if he sees his mother struggle. Trying to get something to eat when he knows that he is a boy, he is the one who has to help his parents.

I know families in Africa, even in Guinea, where a 13-14-year-old child feeds the whole family. It's from the age of 12 that he starts to work.

Danielle Olavario: According to studies, poverty is generally one of the main drivers of migration from Guinea. The second is moving up the social ladder.

Heres Guinean sociologist Dr Abdoulaye Wotm Sompar.

Dr Abdoulaye Wotm Sompar:The economic factor is there. But as it is not the poorest country, the most unstable country, the country where there is war, we must look for the answer elsewhere too.

Do people not want to migrate because they want to get a promotion? A social promotion?

After getting a job there, they send money, build houses. We have even noticed that in villages where there is a lot of immigration, such as the sub-prefecture of Kolaboui in Bok, the most beautiful houses belong to migrants living abroad, who are now positively called Diaspo.

Danielle Olavario: Many migrants say that getting the papers is the most difficult part. But for most, the hardships on the road to success have to do with finding a place in their host countrys society.

Heres Julie Kleinman again.

Julie Kleinman:The first and most serious way that the host country creates difficulties is through this economic marginalisation. That, of course, comes along with politics in terms of having or not having papers on immigration rights. So they both take away the rights of people by not allowing them to work legally. And even when they can work legally, they are very much sort of kept in a particular role of the unskilled, the quote-unquote unskilled migrant. And I do not agree with the word unskilled because most of these migrants will, in fact, gain a lot of skills while they're abroad.

Danielle Olavario: Fana finds that the adventure taught him a lot of things. And now that hes settled, he can pursue his passion: taking care of others.

Fana:I'm a bit versatile, I can do a lot of jobs, several jobs. But I like this school.

Danielle Olavario: Julie Kleinman says that back home, working-class jobs like the one Fana is pursuing, are often not considered manly enough, but migrants dont mind. Because theyre living the adventure. And someday, they will reach success.

Julie Kleinman:There's this famous saying in the Malian language Tunga te danbe don, meaning that exile has no dignity. So when you go abroad somewhere, you can do any kind of job. It's not going to be an assault on your family's lineage or on your own dignity, as it might be if you stayed in West Africa because you can do any sort of job.

They use these resources to remind themselves that they can do these jobs, which may be considered less dignified where they're from, but they can do them because they're on this migratory adventure. And they use it as a resource to overcome some of the attacks on their dignity that they experience to remind themselves that this is not necessarily the context that counts the most.

The context that counts the most is still where they're from and their communities, where their lineage and their dignity as a man and as a person matter.

Danielle Olavario: There is no African market in Gap. To get the food hes used to, Fana has to go all the way to Marseille, a big port city in the Mediterranean. Often, he and his friends would take a car and load it with Guinean spices, vegetables, and peanut butter.

When we ask Fana about Guinea, he lights up.

Fana:I miss everything about Guinea. My family, the life there, even if it's hard, but I like the life there, actually. It's hard, but I was born there.

The temperatures, the climate there. Even the air.

Danielle Olavario: Despite homesickness, Fana doesnt want to go back. As were walking towards the city centre after the interview, he says that the adventure was the best school of life he had.

Fana:The adventure has really matured me and grown me, in fact. You have to know that great men are often not born great, they grow up. This is my case.

Danielle Olavario: In the next episode of Cry Like a Boy, as always, my co-host Khopotso Bodibe, will meet two guests and explore the world of the adventure globally.

Cry Like a Boy is published every second Thursday. If youre new to our podcast, check out our previous episodes on the illegal miners of Lesotho. These men risk their lives every day and experience trauma from living months underground. In our documentary on the Banna Mamanaera, you can hear how these men are coping with the trauma of life in the mines. Have a listen, its a gripping story.

I, Danielle Olavario, will see you next time.

In this episode, we used music by Ba Cissoko.

With original reporting and editing by Makeme Bamba in Conakry, Guinea, and Naira Davlashyan in Gap, France. Marta Rodriguez Martinez, Lillo Montalto Monella & Arwa Barkallah in Lyon, Mame Peya Diaw in Nairobi, Lory Martinez in Paris, France and Clitzia Sala in London, UK.

Production Design by Studio Ochenta. Theme by Gabriel Dalmasso.

A special thanks to our producer Natalia Oelsner for collecting the music for this episode. Our editor-in-chief is Yasir Khan.

For more information on Cry Like a Boy, a Euronews original series and podcast go to our website to find opinion pieces, videos, and articles on the topic. Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram.

Our podcast is available on Castbox, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you liked this episode, please give us five stars and leave a comment. We love reading those.

Share with us your own stories of how you changed and challenged your view on what it means to be a man. Use #crylikeaboy. If youre a French speaker, this podcast is also available in French: Dans la Tte des Hommes.

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The cost of success: What happens to West African migrants in Europe - Euronews

Former Obama Official On The Surge At The Border: ‘This Is A Refugee Crisis’ – NPR

Migrants walk near a gate along the U.S. border with Mexico after being spotted by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent and taken into custody while trying to cross on March 21 in Abram-Perezville, Texas. Julio Cortez/AP hide caption

Migrants walk near a gate along the U.S. border with Mexico after being spotted by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent and taken into custody while trying to cross on March 21 in Abram-Perezville, Texas.

The number of migrants crossing into the United States in March was higher than in any other month in at least 15 years.

That's according to preliminary data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that was reviewed by The Washington Post. The figures show U.S. agents apprehended more than 171,000 migrants in March, including more than 18,800 unaccompanied minors. In all, the number of arrests and detentions has more than doubled since January, according to the Post.

The skyrocketing numbers have posed an early test for the Biden administration, which has refused to refer to what's happening on the border as a crisis.

"The truth of the matter is nothing has changed," President Biden said during his first press conference in office late last month. "It happens every single, solitary year: There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March. That happens every year."

Cecilia Muoz, who worked on the Biden transition team and previously served as director of former President Barack Obama's Domestic Policy Council, says there is indeed a crisis that needs solving, but it's a crisis that extends far beyond the border.

"This is a refugee crisis in our hemisphere, and you're never going to be able to fix a refugee crisis with the measures that we take at the border," Muoz says.

Muoz, currently an adviser with the think tank New America, spoke with NPR's Morning Edition about the migrant surge, saying that until the U.S. addresses the crises in Central America that are causing people to flee their homes in the first place, the challenges on the border won't go away. "You can't fix it at the border," she says.

Below are excerpts from the conversation, edited in parts for clarity and length.

On what has led to the current conditions on the border

In 2014, the Obama administration faced a similar problem. It took a couple of months, but ultimately for the rest of the Obama administration it was managed with the right facilities and the right procedures. We never ran out of shelter space again and the process flowed pretty smoothly. I think that's where the Biden administration is ultimately heading. But they signaled early on that it was going to be messy at first because they inherited a mess, and that it was going to take time until we're able to manage the flow and to properly house people.

But ultimately, this is a refugee crisis in our hemisphere, and you're never going to be able to fix a refugee crisis with the measures that we take at the border. So it is tremendously important that the president has asked Vice President Harris to lead the conversation with the Northern Triangle countries [of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala], where people are coming from, that they have plans to reinstate the kinds of investments that started getting made in the Obama years, and very importantly to help people in the region get to safety without having to cross all of Mexico with smugglers. We lost four years of progress and momentum, but the sooner we get started and the Biden administration is getting started the sooner we will be able to manage this problem and its roots, which is really how you fix it. You can't fix it at the border.

The Biden administration has announced it wants to spend roughly $4 billion to address root causes failing economies, violence in Central and South American countries. The Obama administration spent $750 million, sent that money to those countries in 2016 alone, and it just didn't work. Is this throwing more money at a problem that can't be solved that way?

Look, this is not a problem which is going to go away over the long term unless we actually get very serious about addressing the reasons that people migrate in the first place. We did see some progress in Honduras, for example, as a result of the investments that the Obama administration made.

But ultimately, you can't secure long-term progress in the course of a year or two years. At the end of the day, this is our hemisphere. We live in it and we are reaping the effects of disinvestment over a long period of time. We are seeing the effects of failing to fix our own immigration laws over a long period of time. They haven't been updated since the '90s, and had we done that we wouldn't be seeing nearly the scale of problem that we're seeing now.

But what are the realistic benchmarks for these countries and these governments when it comes to getting this foreign aid? What effects does the money need to have in order to say this is money worth spending?

So, for example, in Guatemala, which is experiencing a drought which had a disastrous failure of the coffee crop, the United States had been engaged in work in Guatemala to change the kinds of crops that people are raising to ultimately make their lives more sustainable in response, frankly, to the ways in which climate change is changing agriculture in the country.

In Honduras, Honduras has just suffered two huge hurricanes that happened in exactly the same place within two weeks of each other. So, immediate disaster assistance is a short-term way to make sure that people can survive at home and not have to resort to making a very dangerous trip in order to survive. People don't choose to take a trip this dangerous or to send their children with smugglers because it's easy. They do it because they're desperate. So we can measure the impact of creating the wherewithal so that people can stay at home, which is ultimately what they prefer.

This story was produced and edited for broadcast by Marc Rivers, Elena Moore and Simone Popperl. Jason Breslow produced for the Web.

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Former Obama Official On The Surge At The Border: 'This Is A Refugee Crisis' - NPR