From his blackberry field, Arnoldo Chile looks at the Agua volcano with the serenity of someone who is exactly where he wants to be. He is 33 years old and has everything he has always dreamed of: his own land and a house that he shares with his wife in the village of El Rejón de Sumpango, an hour from Guatemala City. With an H-2A visa for agricultural workers in hand, for Arnoldo it has been quite a back-and-forth with the United States since 2016. Every year, he spends eight months in California, where he works in the logistics of an agri-food company, and four months in Guatemala, where he takes care of the blackberry field purchased with his remittances.
In the village of Rancho Alegre, on the other side of Sumpango, Roselia Canel looks out the window of her room while embroidering a güipil, thinking that she will soon have enough money to build a fashion workshop on the land she has just purchased. On the outskirts of the city, Juan Pacache and his wife fertilize their snow pea plantation, while, 15 kilometers away, in Santiago Sacatepéquez, Vilma Lemus serves the last customers of the day at her Fruit store.
Vilma Lemus at her vegetable stall, in Santiago Sacatepéquez.Simona Carnino
The three worked as farmers in floriculture in South Dakota (United States) for a few months in 2023. “I earned around 4,000 dollars a month (about 3,700 euros). After four months of work, I saved enough to buy land and help my family with daily expenses,” explains Canel. The seamstress is convinced that if she manages to return to the United States three more times, she will be able to open her own embroidery business.
Chile, Pacache, Canel and Lemus are some of the many Central Americans who are forced to emigrate to the United States for economic reasons, but among the few who had the opportunity to do so on a regular basis.
Roselia Canel embroidering at home.Simona Carnino
Chile explains that he was lucky enough to travel with a visa, without having to resort to a coyote (human traffickers), thanks to a program to send temporary agricultural workers from the Cuatro Pinos Cooperative. According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, around 9,000 people from Guatemala traveled to the United States with a temporary work contract in 2022. Of these, 2,982 left with the H-2A agricultural visa and 5,999 with the H-2B to temporary non-agricultural workers, selected by private recruiters or through the Labor Mobility Program of the Ministry of Labor of Guatemala.
He earned around 4,000 dollars a month (about 3,700 euros). After four months of work, I saved enough to buy a piece of land and help my family with daily expenses.
Roselia Canel, Guatemalan migrant
Despite the increase in temporary regular visas, this trend still contrasts with the 55,302 deported by air from the United States, the 19,665 by land from Mexico and the 222,085 Guatemalans detained in the attempt to irregularly cross the border of the North American country only in 2023. A coyote on average charges 7,500 dollars (almost 7,000 euros) to an irregular migrant for his transfer from Guatemala to the United States, the predominant way of traveling to North America for a Guatemalan forced to move due to lack of employment, insecurity or persecution.
The processing of a temporary work visa can take up to 120 days and obtaining it is not easy. It all starts when employers in the United States ask the Department of Labor for a labor certification that demonstrates the need to hire temporary foreign workers due to the lack of local labor. The employer then makes a request for non-migrant workers and, if no local worker applies for the position, the selection process abroad begins, often with the support of companies or recruiting entities. One of them is Cierto Global, whose director, Johana Bustamante, explains that they select qualified labor through peasant organizations in Guatemala. “We conduct interviews and evaluate skills in strawberry picking or pea cutting, for example. Once the company has selected the workers, we begin the visa process,” she clarifies.
La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, where temporary migrants with work visas leave.Simona Carnino
H2-A visas have no limit. The H2-B has a cap of 66,000 visas, expanded in 2024 to another 64,716 additional visas aimed mainly at people with previous experience with US companies. This makes it difficult for workers to accept their first experience. Furthermore, to date, the United States has mainly welcomed temporary Mexican workers, to whom the United States granted 91% of the visas granted in 2022, which reduces hiring opportunities for Guatemalans and other Central Americans.
Coyote scams
“In 2008, my sister and I heard about a man who sent farmers to the United States in exchange for 10,000 quetzales (almost 1,200 euros) per visa,” says Vilma Lemus, 45, looking sadly at the ground. She sold the only land she had to raise the money, but the coyote disappeared. She lost everything. “For many years I thought about not leaving, then I met Cierto Global and I trusted again in the possibility of traveling regularly to the United States,” she adds.
In March 2023, Lemus went to plant flowers for an American company for a season. He only had to pay 400 quetzales (48 euros) for the passport. Airfare, visa and accommodation were provided by the employer, which is normal in agricultural worker recruitments. Upon returning home, Lemus managed to pay off accumulated debts and help support his three children, a niece, and his octogenarian mother. “There were times when we didn't even eat. Thanks to the money I earned abroad, I was able to cover basic expenses and rented a store where I sell vegetables, fruit and traditional costumes,” says Lemus.
Vilma Lemus, on the left, and her family in a home for single women with economic difficulties.Simona Carnino
Among the recruiters recognized by the Ministry of Labor of Guatemala is the Cuatro Pinos Agricultural Cooperative, which since 2016 has implemented a regular migration program exclusively for members' families. Vanessa García, in charge of social responsibility at Cuatro Pinos, emphasizes that in the last year they have sent 150 workers, who together sent one and a half million dollars in remittances, invested in production here. “Temporary migration allows them not to risk their lives along the way. They do not have to pay the debt to the coyote and they manage to maintain family ties because they return in a few months,” she declares.
Temporary migration allows them not to risk their lives along the way. They do not have to pay the debt to the coyote and they manage to maintain family ties because they return in a few months
Vanessa García, head of social responsibility at the Cuatro Pinos Agricultural Cooperative
An irregular migrant usually lives abroad for an average of 13.6 years before returning home, with the risk of losing family and community ties. The uprooting of these migrants contrasts with the experience of Juan Pacache, who in two decades has lived with circular migration, first to Canada and now to the United States, without losing the connection with his family. “My house and my snow pea crop are the fruit of my remittances,” says Pacache. He boasts that after his first trip, he invested in the education of his children. “Now all my savings are used to buy land, fertilizers, seeds and to hire people to work with me.” His purpose is to reinvest the money to also benefit those who did not have the opportunity to travel.
Juan Pacache working a garden that he has managed to raise thanks to remittances.Simona Carnino
In Guatemala, the sending of remittances increased by 11.5% in the first eight months of 2023 compared to the previous year, representing almost 19% of GDP. According to the Action Against Hunger report
Temporary Regular Migration to Canada and the United States
,
both regular and irregular migrants send remittances, but regular migrants do so more frequently, with higher monthly amounts, in addition to returning home with greater savings and work experience.
In general, women are a minority in temporary agricultural employment programs. American employers prefer male labor and often lack exclusive housing for them. “I feel lucky to have been selected last year,” Canel emphasizes. She believes that they have proven to work “equally or faster” than men. “They should give us more opportunities to travel, especially because migration with the coyote is very dangerous for us,” says Canel.
While Canel awaits approval of his visa to travel to the United States again, Lemus and Pacache returned to South Dakota in March of this year, where they will stay for a few months. They work hard all week. At night they call their families to share the day. Although they sometimes feel alone, the idea of returning soon and improving life in their home country fills them with energy. Pacache believes that Guatemalan authorities should consider that people want to go to work abroad. “They have to facilitate the hiring process in Canada and the United States, allowing those who decide to migrate to do so on a regular basis. “We want to live here, in this country that we are building with our remittances and we ask that our rights as migrant workers be respected,” he concludes.
This report has been carried out with the support of Action Against Hunger.
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