According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a recent study, released by the Reflection, Research, and Communication Team (ERIC-SJ), revealed that 82.9 percent of migration from Honduras to the U.S. was driven by economic hardship, while only 11.3 percent resulted from violence and insecurity. The survey, which took place between February 12 and February 22, was conducted with a national sample of 1,584 Honduran residents over the age of 18 who have family members that have migrated to the U.S. within the last four years.
The study's results, compared to those of the 2015 ERIC-SJ survey, are a reflection of increasingly safer conditions in Honduras. The number of Hondurans who moved to the U.S. to flee violence has dropped from 16.9 percent in 2015 to 11.3 percent in 2018 -- a 5.6 percent decrease. But, the number of those who migrated for economic reasons has grown from 77.6 percent in 2015 to 82.9 percent in 2018 -- a 5.3 percent increase.
"A refugee is a person who has experienced or fears persecution based on five specific grounds laid out in international treaties and U.S. law. People fleeing poverty, disorder, or generalized violence do not qualify," CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian said. "This survey, conducted with the support of the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, suggests that few, if any, of those heading to the U.S. border from Honduras are refugees.
"If they nonetheless pass the 'credible fear' interview that is the first step in an asylum claim, they will likely be released from custody and join the large illegal alien community already living in the U.S."
Homicide rates in Honduras have been on the decline since 2012, and dropped by 24.97 percent between 2016 and 2017.
For more on this story, see CIS.org.
