The land of the forgetful

http://www.nicaraguadispatch.com/news/2013/04/who-benefits-from-nicaraguas-brain-drain/7438

The land of the forgetful

By: Cristiana Guevara Mena

In Nicaragua, there are more and more people migrating abroad in search of peace and better future opportunities that are not found on their homeland. They leave because they have no proper jobs or economic and political participation in their own nation. Overseas, our compatriots work tirelessly to send money to their families still living in the country. Because their new life is hard and difficult, it seems convenient to forget their own land in order to avoid thinking about the sadness of their old reality. However, what does a Nicaraguan abroad represent? Who benefits from this human spill?

During the eighties, where there was the first wave of exiles because of the war and the dictatorship that existed at the time. It was the first exile of many professionals and technicians in search of a better future abroad. Now, most of them have already made their lives outside, and have no plans to return because Nicaragua doesn’t present to them any kind of security. After thirty years, their country does not draw much attention from them, except for seeing their families, visiting for Christmas, or coming for special events. Since then, they haven’t returned to stay. Nor can we blame them.

Again, with the present government that rules the country since 2007, the escape of many Nicaraguans repeats itself for the same reasons. Most of them are trained youth. This time, the form of dictatorship is represented by the blockage of opportunities to work for those who are not unconditionally submissive toward the party in power. These facts have forced people to consider that success is abroad and not in their native land.

Being overseas, Nicaraguans are subject to new laws and customs, violence, and unusual jobs, in order to obtain a "decent" quality of life and some money for their families. Those who go to the United States for survival learn a different language and adapt to a new society. This includes anxieties about work, deportation, and various cultural clashes that they find. However, no matter how homesick they are for their homeland…they don’t return.

It should be noted that due to such migration, the government takes advantage of the situation, conveniently forgetting about Nicaraguans outside. Despite the current electoral law, no consular service abroad delivers identity cards to those who request them. This makes the law inapplicable, since they cannot participate in the public life of the country, such as the national and municipal elections. The idea that Nicaraguans abroad may have a deputy to represent them in the National Assembly is a dream.

Family remittances are mainly from the U.S., followed by Costa Rica, then Spain and other countries. The money is received by banks that are owned by government people. They happily count on that money to enrich themselves and pay for their wasteful feasting of the public purse. When it comes to remittances, they don’t forget Nicaraguans outside, because they represent one third of the national budget. As demonstrated, exporting people generates millions in profits for banks, because the dollars that our countrymen send fattens their accounts. The case of the U.S. is the most important, not because the bankers or the government people are interested in the fate of those who send the money, but because that's where the biggest piece of the pie comes from.

Unfortunately, the Nicaraguans abroad are stripped of many of their rights despite representing a large economic weight for the country. They cannot protest because they are outside and have their own problems to solve, nor can they stop sending money because their families depend on that income. They are apparently "stuck" for not having an exit in sight. It is a sad and distressing situation for our citizens living overseas, because they are not of this land, nor of the other one, and they can’t do anything about it.