Guatemalan immigrants
Guatemalan immigrants have increasingly migrated to the United States since the 1960s, driven by a combination of civil unrest, economic hardship, and natural disasters. Following a thirty-six-year civil war that began in 1960, many fled violence and persecution, particularly among indigenous communities. The 1976 earthquake and Hurricane Stan in 2005 further displaced thousands, prompting migration in search of better living conditions. By 2019, Guatemalans became the second-largest Central American immigrant group in the U.S., with significant communities in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago.
As of recent estimates, the majority of Guatemalan immigrants are undocumented, facing a perilous journey north that poses numerous dangers. Despite these challenges, they often maintain strong connections to their home country, sending substantial remittances that support family members in Guatemala. However, the emigration of skilled workers contributes to a "brain drain," complicating the economic landscape in Guatemala. The ongoing flow of Guatemalan immigrants continues to reflect the search for stability and opportunity in the face of persistent adversity.
Subject Terms
Guatemalan immigrants
SIGNIFICANCE: Civil war, natural disasters, and economic hardships combined to cause Guatemalan immigration to the United States to begin a rise during the 1960s that has continued to grow into the twenty-first century. By 2019, Guatemalans became the second-largest Central American immigrant community after Salvadorans.
Before 1930, the U.S. Census did not break down Central American immigration by country, but in any case, overall immigration from that region was small. According to the U.S. Census, only 423 Guatemalans were formally admitted into the United States during the 1930s. The number of Guatemalan immigrants remained low until the 1960s when a significant increase began to occur. The majority of Guatemalan immigrants have arrived in the United States since the mid-1980s.
During the 1980s, the number of Guatemalans granted legal permanent resident status reached almost 60,000, continuing a growth pattern that started during the 1960s. The number of immigrants have continued to rise, with 145,111 Guatemalans being granted legal permanent resident status between 2000 and 2008. The 2000 U.S. Census listed the total number of Guatemalan immigrants living in the United States as 480,665. Of that number, 111,375 were naturalized U.S. citizens, and 369,290 were listed as “not a U.S. citizen.” As of the 2013 American Community Survey, there were 1.3 million people of Guatemalan origin living in the United States, of which 64 percent were foreign-born. Only 24 percent of Guatemalan immigrants were citizens. According to Pew Research Center, in 2017, there were 864,000 foreign-born Guatemalans living in the United States, and 27 percent were United States citizens. In 2019, 1.11 million Guatemalans immigrated to the United States. This figure stayed roughly consistent in 2021 with an estimated 1.10 million immigrants. These numbers represented 29 percent of all immigrants from Central American countries and trailed only El Salvador which had 1.42 million immigrants. However, these numbers tell only a part of the story, as the majority of Guatemalan immigrants are undocumented.
Push-Pull Factors
Factors that have contributed to Guatemalan immigration into the United States have included Central American civil unrest, natural disasters, and economic problems. A thirty-six-year civil war began in Guatemala in 1960 when the right-wing military rose up against the increasingly liberal government. The war left thousands dead and drove tens of thousands to flee to Mexico and the United States. During the 1980s, Guatemala’s indigenous communities endured the worst of the war’s violence, as they were suspected by the military of aiding the rebel forces. Because the U.S. government backed the right-wing Guatemalan leaders, it denied personal petitions for political asylum from Guatemalans during that period. The refusal to grant protected status prompted some religious groups in the United States to form the Sanctuary movement, an activist movement that aided undocumented immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador.
A series of natural disasters in Guatemala left thousands of families without homes, land, or work, driving many of them to emigrate. In 1976, an earthquake destroyed much of Guatemala City and its environs, leaving 26,000 dead, 76,000 injured, and thousands more homeless. In 2005, Hurricane Stan caused torrential rain and mudslides that killed as many as 2,000 people in Guatemala and devastated entire villages.
A low standard of living, poor health care, and unfair land distribution have all contributed to Guatemalan immigration to the United States. Guatemala has high infant and child mortality rates, low life expectancy, and a terrible malnutrition problem. During the early twenty-first century, more than 60 percent of Guatemala’s people were living in poverty. The majority of the adult working population was engaged in migrant farm labor for the coffee, sugar, and cotton plantations.
For Guatemalans attempting to emigrate to the United States, the journey north is difficult, dangerous, and expensive. Fees for guides facilitating illegal entry into the United States can be as high as fifteen hundred U.S. dollars. Rape, robbery, injury, and death are some of the dangers of migrating north.
Transnational Guatemalan Immigrant Communities
The largest Guatemalan immigrant community in the United States is in Los Angeles. Other large Guatemalan immigrant communities have arisen in Houston, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., southern Florida, San Francisco, Miami, and the Phoenix-Tucson area in Arizona. These communities tend to be transnational; as their members work to create new lives for themselves in the United States, they continue to maintain ties with their home communities. Many Guatemalan immigrants send financial remittances to relatives in their Guatemalan hometowns that constitute a substantial portion of the latters’ incomes. In 2014, immigrants sent $5.5 billion to relatives in Guatemala. By 2021, this had risen to $15.3 billion, a figure which accounted for almost 18 percent of Guatemala's GDP. The staying power of these funds was temporary. More than half provided for the daily consumption of recipients. Almost ten percent went toward construction of housing while about 5 percent was saved or invested. Remittances, nonetheless, were important for reducing social pressures stemming from poverty.
A special problem arising from Guatemalan immigration has been the spread of gang culture from the United States to Guatemala. Beginning during the 1990s, the U.S. government began targeting undocumented immigrants in the penal system for deportation. Many of these deportees have been in the United States for so long that they have no memory of having lived in Guatemala. After they return to their original homeland, they tend to continue their criminal activities.
Another problem for Guatemala was the lure of the United States to its human talent. In addition to its labor force, many professionals and university students sought to establish themselves in the United States. The absence of these types of professionals, called a "brain drain," caused shortages and an inability of many companies in Guatemala to fill technical positions.
In the 2020s, the lack of viable economic options kept Guatemalan immigration flows constant into the United States. Periodically, tragedies developed such as the 2022 death of 51 migrants in Texas after asphyxiating inside a tractor trailer abandoned in the heat. Such incidents, nonetheless, have not deterred the exodus of Guatemalan migrants.
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