In recent years, a growing proportion of migrants at the US southern border have come from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. This surge of migrants from Central America has prompted the U.S. government to seek to better understand and address the root causes of migration from the region. One substantive response came in July 2021, under Executive Order 14010, when the Biden-Harris Administration released what has become known as the Root Causes Strategy. The White House pledged to commit $4 billion over four years on efforts to address drivers of irregular migration from these three countries.

As the pillars of this strategy note, the factors affecting migration from this region are dynamic, complex, and interrelated, encompassing economic insecurity, governance, environmental degradation, and violence. Updates on the strategy’s implementation have focused on successes in securing private sector commitments for job creation in the region, as well as robust US investments to combat COVID-19.

As this strategy is further elaborated and implemented, a deeper look at human lives in the context of the forces shaping migration is warranted. Invisible Threads: Addressing the Root Causes of Migration from Guatemala by Investing in Women and Girls, a new report from the Population Institute, compiles insights from researchers and civil society experts on the factors that drive are driving migration from Guatemala—and, in particular, the lives of women and girls in this context.

Examining the Weave: Migration and Issues Affecting Women And Girls

The lives of women and girls are deeply connected to the issues commonly understood to drive migration from Guatemala. For example, many migrants seek greater economic security for themselves and their families. While Guatemala’s economy is the largest in Central America, nearly half of Guatemala’s population lives below the national poverty line, with 23 percent of the population living in extreme poverty.

The burden of economic insecurity is heavily borne by women: The proportion of women participating in the paid labor market in Guatemala is the lowest in Latin America. As is the case across much of Latin America, women in Guatemala also face educational and occupational inequities, which prevent them from gaining skills that are valued in the labor market and creates “glass ceilings” that limit their ability to progress in professional hierarchies.

It is widely acknowledged that climate change also plays a role in people’s decisions to migrate from the region. As the impacts of climate change pose growing challenges for agricultural productivity and food security, women farmers, particularly those in rural areas and indigenous communities affected by land displacement, face persistent inequities in access to land and extension services that can make recovery from extreme weather events particularly challenging.

Crime and violence are significant and destabilizing forces across Guatemala, with gangs and trafficking activity compelling many of those most vulnerable to migrate. Guatemala also continues to experience widespread sexual and gender-based violence, with the rate of femicide among the highest in the world.

Demographic pressures also play an important yet often overlooked role in the context of migration from Guatemala. With half the population under 22 years of age and the highest population growth rate in Latin America, demographic trends in Guatemala will continue to interact with the multiple factors that drive migration. While the fertility rate has declined in recent decades, the current average of 2.4 children per woman is the highest in Central America. Unmet need for family planning and reproductive health services contributes significantly to higher fertility, and while progress has been made in extending reproductive health care to women and families, that progress has been uneven: Indigenous women and women in rural areas reporting the highest unmet need for family planning services.

Innovative Programs Demonstrate The Power Of Investment

While the status, health, and well-being of women and girls are intertwined with many of the challenges driving migration from Guatemala, they also face persistent inequality in education, the labor force, health care, and family life. Limited investment in sexual and reproductive health, in particular, has stalled meaningful progress in the realization of rights and opportunities for women and girls. A number of innovative programs across Guatemala, however, illustrate the ways in which targeted investments can yield benefits that cut across many of the root causes of migration.

This point is underscored by the story of Esther, a 19-year-old young woman from the outskirts of Antigua. Emerging from a childhood shaped by poverty, crime, and violence, Esther crossed paths with WINGS, a Guatemalan NGO whose purpose is to educate young people on sexual and reproductive health, to empower them to access services, and to help them prevent unwanted pregnancies. Many of Esther’s peers make rational choices to flee a hopeless future in search of survival. With tailored support from WINGS, however, Esther was able to pursue a formal education in Guatemala. She now sees a new future for herself and has chosen to stay, aspiring to be a change-maker in her community.

As a response to the limited opportunities available to many indigenous girls across Guatemala, Abriendo Oportunidades, a successful mentoring program initiated by the Population Council, trains and supports indigenous women as mentors. Since 2004, the program has reached nearly 24,000 adolescent indigenous girls in 350 communities. With the involvement of community leaders, Abriendo Oportunidades offers safe spaces for girls to build life skills and support one another, helping to transform social norms that allow girls to stay in school, decrease the rate of child marriage, and expand opportunities for young women.

Conservation NGO FUNDAECO is also addressing intersecting challenges faced by rural Guatemalan women and girls related to environmental degradation, economic insecurity, gender inequity, and reproductive health and well-being through its Healthy and Empowered Women and Girls initiative. The program empowers and supports traditional midwives and links them to the public health services, ensuring service delivery to indigenous women in isolated communities by combining modern healthcare with traditional indigenous knowledge. It also includes educational scholarship programs for girls, and training and support to women in income-generation programs based in sustainable natural resource management activities.

Strategies Focused On Women And Girls Can Boost Progress

A deeper understanding of the intersecting challenges and opportunities facing women and girls will strengthen policies and programs designed to address the root causes of migration. Based on their expertise and research, the contributors to the Invisible Threads report offer the following recommendations:

• Ramp up investment in programs that advance the health, rights, and well-being of women and girls. The unique challenges facing women and girls in Guatemala, particularly related to their reproductive health and rights, limit their potential and their ability to contribute to long-term solutions. While there have been significant advances in extending reproductive health services to women across much of Latin America, too often the poorest and most marginalized communities—especially indigenous women and girls—have been left behind. Advancing reproductive health and rights will strengthen the health and well-being of families and contribute to lasting progress for Guatemala’s intersecting challenges.

• Foster greater coherence in strategies to engage youth, with attention to the needs and experiences of the most vulnerable, including indigenous people, people with disabilities, rural communities, girls, and LGBTQ youth. A national development strategy to capitalize on Guatemala’s youthful population requires an approach that reflects not only the multicultural experience of childhood, adolescence, and youth but also how inequality is intrinsically woven into it. Innovative programs such as those led by WINGS, FUNDAECO, and Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades demonstrate the effectiveness of intersectional approaches for reaching youth in varying circumstances across Guatemala.

• Engage civil society in regional approaches that advance the needs and rights of women, girls, indigenous populations, and other marginalized groups. As caravans draw migrants from multiple countries and encounter border control and security forces from multiple jurisdictions, regional coordination between governments and civil society organizations is needed to develop a coherent, gender-responsive, human rights-based strategy. The U.S. government can and should join regional platforms to strengthen regional development initiatives, contribute to the establishment of regional migration programs, and regularly engage with civil society.

In Guatemala, as in every country in Central America, women and girls are critical agents of change in their families and communities. Like invisible threads, the lives of women and girls are woven throughout the intersecting issues at the root of current migration pressures. Investing in them—in efforts that boost their rights, their options, and their choices—can yield dividends in Guatemala and beyond.