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The Politics of Asylum: Mexico and the Central American Refugees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Elizabeth G. Ferris
Elizabeth G. Ferris*
Affiliation:
Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania
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Extract

The violence in Central America has displaced an unprecedented number of people in the area. While the majority of the approximately two million displaced individuals remain within their native countries, hundreds of thousands have fled to neighboring countries and to the U.S. where they create serious economic and political problems for the host governments. This article explores Mexico's policies toward the estimated 250,000 Central Americans who are seeking protection from the violence of their homelands.

There is considerable controversy over whether these individuals are political refugees. The 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees defines refugees as those individuals who “due to a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion have left their country of origin.” The convention's emphasis on individuals singled out for political persecution would seem to disqualify many of the Central Americans fleeing generalized conditions of violence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , August 1984 , pp. 357 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1984

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