The Fragility of the Labour Corridors to Costa Rica and the United States: Precarious Migrant Workers in Central America

Authors

  • Abelardo Morales-Gamboa National University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v12i3.4444

Abstract

Central American migration flows take place mostly through two main corridors: the northern corridor to the United States, and the southern corridor to Costa Rica. Using the concept of fragility, in this article I analyse how migration combines the precarity and vulnerability that Central American workers face, both in their home country and in the corridors toward the destination labour markets. Their movements and the conditions they encounter reflect a new scale of local and transnational labour relationships. Migrant workers constitute a segment of the workforce in transnational corridors, which circulates between several informal activities but also among key sectors of the formal economy; the latter often takes advantage of their social, occupational and even legal difficulties.

Keywords: Central America; migrant workers; labour markets; informal economy; labour corridors

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Published

2021-09-30

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 3 (2021): September 2021 (Special Issue)

Section

ARTICLES

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