On the Front Line of Violence: A Survey-Based Portrait of Women Seeking to Emigrate from Northern Central America

The profile of migrants seeking to cross the southwest U.S. border has changed dramatically. Women currently represent approximately one third of border apprehensions at the southwest border, and many are fleeing pervasive violence and insecurity in Northern Central America. To understand these changing migration patterns, we rely upon survey data to examine the lives of women from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras who have been victims of crime within the past year and who report plans to emigrate in the near future. In comparing these women to their counterparts, we find that this group of “victim emigrants” faces an array of daily challenges and security threats that others do not, ranging from police corruption to extortion. This survey-based portrayal of the lives of those women most likely to emigrate provides a critical first step in understanding the increasingly mixed nature of Central American emigration and the consequent need for a more nuanced policy response to address the issue.