A new Survey on Remittances 2009: Children and Adolescents, the
eighth in this IOM-Guatemala series and jointly produced with
UNICEF, confirms the negative impact of the financial crisis on
children and adolescents in Guatemala.

The decline in remittances from family members abroad has forced
tens of thousands of children to leave school and find work to
supplement the family income.

Amongst the 3,000 households interviewed by IOM and UNICEF, 8.7
per cent of the children between 7 and 17 years-old can no longer
attend school and 7.4 per cent or 92,905 children of the same age
have been forced to find jobs to supplement the family
income. 

"Forty-two per cent of these children were in school in 2008.
This confirms the direct impact of the financial crisis on the
choices families are making," explains Delbert Field, IOM Chief of
Mission in Guatemala.  

Survey respondents confirmed to IOM and UNICEF that migration
had improved their quality of life.  For many years the
remittances received allowed children to stop working and attend
school.

Field adds: "The data from this latest survey can be a valuable
tool when designing public policies to encourage the development
potential of remittances, which will undoubtedly translate into
better opportunities for children."

According to the 2009 Remittance Survey, an estimated 1.6
million Guatemalans are living abroad; 70.5 per cent of them are
men who send remittances home to 1,557,234 households in the
country.  The average monthly remittance of US$272 is expected
lead to US$ 3.84 billion worth of remittances in 2009, an 11 per
cent decline from 2008.

But unemployment in the United States, where 97 per cent of
Guatemalan migrants are living, is not deterring others from
migrating.  Responses indicate that 7.1 per cent plan to
migrate in the next 12 months. 

Only 3.3 per cent of families interviewed confirmed that a
family member had returned home this year and listed the main
causes for return as deportation, the financial crisis, illness and
retirement.

Seventy-two per cent of those surveyed characterized their
economic situation between bad and fair.  Many of these
families have been forced to cut down the number of meals per day
and the amount of calories consumed at each meal, which has lead to
weight loss amongst infants aged between 7 and 23 months. 

A full copy of the report in Spanish is available online at
class="paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.oim.org.gt/"
target="_blank" title="">http://www.oim.org.gt/. The
English version will be available in the coming weeks. For
more information please contact:

IOM Guatemala

Sonia Pellecer

Tel: +502 2362-8367 to 70

Email: "mailto:spellecer@iom.int">spellecer@iom.int