Ra Ximhai (Jul 2014)
FERTILITY, CHILD LABOUR AND MIGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL DAY LABORERS (AS) OF COFFEE IN THECROSS-BORDER SPACE MEXICO-GUATEMALA
Abstract
Chiapas as the border departments of Guatemala is characterized as an area of socio-economic backwardness. Since the twentieth century a significant flow of undocumented Guatemalan migrant families are temporarily employed in Mexican coffee plantations in the Soconusco region, mostly from the poorest and most marginalized rural sectors from the border Guatemalan departments. This paper estimates the marital Total Fertility Rate and explores the reproductive characteristics of Guatemalan agricultural laborers families. The Global marital fertility rate is high (5.65 children per woman on average at the end of their reproductive life) with an increasing trend. It is argued that a high number of children in these families are functional for them, since they require the family labor for their survival. In this cross-border area are articulated by child labor, high fertility of Guatemalan rural migrants, due to the political and socioeconomic conditions of Guatemala, and the development needs of the agricultural export capital coffee in Mexico, permanently driven by the Mexican government.
