Not necessarily. There鈥檚 another possible outcome according to , a 人妻少妇专区 expert on Central American migration.
A central feature of President Biden鈥檚 US Citizenship Act of 2021 is establishing a path toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants. According to some critics of the bill, that approach will simply encourage illegal immigration.
At issue are provisions allowing undocumented individuals to apply for temporary legal status and a green card after five years in the US.
Reichman, an associate professor of anthropology, writes in a that critics overlook evidence for another outcome鈥攏amely that many immigrants, at least in the short term, would leave the US to return home.
鈥淔or unauthorized immigrants, a trip home means risking everything 鈥� once they leave the US, they can鈥檛 come back without taking on huge amounts of debt or putting their lives at stake,鈥� writes Reichman. While migrants come to the US for wages, 鈥渢heir hearts often remain back home. They communicate with their hometowns constantly and they dream of returning.鈥�
Reichman says that it does remain possible that illegal immigration will rise. Whether that comes to pass depends on multiple factors, including 鈥渢he social conditions in immigrants鈥� countries of origin, the state of the US economy, and the nitty-gritty details about visa quotas in Biden鈥檚 proposed legislation,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭hat said, it is a mistake to view a path to citizenship only as an invitation to future migrations. For Central Americans who have been kept apart from their families for far too long, amnesty might mean going home.鈥�
Reichman has conducted field research in Honduras since 2001, focusing on emigration to the United States, the coffee industry, and evangelical religion. His book, (Cornell University Press, 2011) is an ethnography of one Honduran town’s transformation from a coffee-growing economy to a migration-based economy.
