Despite the rhetoric excreting from the mouths of some poorly educated presidential wannabes north of the Mexican border, most migrants are not criminals and, if pertinent data is carefully examined, they seem no more likely to commit crimes than any other citizen.
It’s not only in the United States that migrants suffer from negative stereotyping and stigmatization. The thousands of penniless Central Americans who pass through Guadalajara on their way to the United States each year are frequently singled out as miscreants to be shunned at all costs.
This presupposition is something the non-profit FM4 Paso Libre migrants’ support group in Guadalajara is keen to change.
In an effort to highlight the reality that migrants are no different than anyone else eager to improve their lives, FM4 volunteers joined with the Central American travelers last weekend to clean up a stretch of railway track near where the group operates its shelter. Around 40 people took part in the activity, with the migrants more than willing to pitch in and lend a hand, organizers said.
The clean up was, however, also a public relations exercise. FM4 is hopeful that neighbors in Colonia Los Arcos who oppose their shelter – donated recently by the state government – will come to realize that the migrants offer no greater threat than anyone else in the city, and probably a lot less.
The shelter, which has been operating for about a month, provides food, clothing, temporary lodging, medical attention and legal advice to the travelers. Volunteers attend to approximately 350 migrants each month.
Like many “ungated” middle-class neighborhoods in Guadalajara, Colonia Los Arcos has suffered its fair share of break-ins and crime in the past decade. When they realized that a migrants’ center was set to open in their midst, the home owners mobilized and started a campaign to throw back the government’s plan to donate the property to FM4. Banners were strung up rejecting the plan and insinuating that crime would increase because of the presence of the migrants. This inevitably provoked a rash of comments on social media, highlighting the “racist attitude” of the neighborhood’s residents. Despite this, many of the banners have not still been removed.
FM4 has been keen to maintain a dialogue with residents to try and convince them that they are not at risk from the flow of migrants. Slowly but surely – and with the help of exercises such as last weekend’s – perceptions may eventually start to change, they hope.
That is, of course, as long as no one pays any attention to the absurd soapbox orators seeking political advancement thousands of miles to the north.