Aquí no hay trabajo

“Aquí no hay trabajo,” (There´s no work here) is a common refrain heard throughout El Progreso, Honduras. One young man I speak with, Leo, tells me about his attempts to get periodic 6-month contracts to do agricultural work on the local banana plantation, operated by the Tela Railroad Company. In the past, he has managed to get the contract and earn a small salary – enough to get by. But contract renewals are never guaranteed and competition is stiff. He´s frequently out of work.

Nilda, a woman in her late 30s has had even worse luck. She was deported from the US in 2007 and has been out of work ever since. She tried to find work in the maquilas (local piece-work factories operated by multinational companies), but they tell her she´s too old for the job. Slots are limited, and the managers would rather have younger women who can better withstand the long hours and poor working conditions the maquilas necessitate. After a woman hits 35 years old, this employment opportunity (one of the few available to women in the region) is virtually unattainable.

The employment situation in Honduras is dire. It´s also important to recognize that it´s no accident that things have turned out this way. Honduras, and especially the coastal region where El Progreso is located, has been the home of foreign imperialism and exploitation for decades. Multinational companies in the region have not only displaced local businesses and mass-exported resources from the country, they have also worked hard to exert political influence and change the economic scene to their own benefit. The region is now part of a free trade zone with limited labor regulations and low export taxes. With the direct pressure from companies, along with diplomatic pressure from countries like the US, these foreign companies have become a major source of employment in the region. For the short term, this creates a situation where people are employed at low wages with little opportunities for advancement. In the long term, it creates a situation of dependence, in which the companies start controlling many aspects of people´s lives, and the local economy and productive potential is substantially decreased. What´s worse, when a company then decides to downsize substantially, like the Tela Railroad Company did when it cut its workforce by 95% after Hurricane Mitch, the former employees are left with very little to build from.

Of course, many people in Honduras are aware of this economic tragedy and are working energetically to construct new productive economic opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. Others are hanging on to the subsistence agriculture lifestyle of the countryside, though this sector has itself decreased dramatically in the past 100 years, as internal migration to the cities increased and large agricultural companies greedily bought up farmers´ lands.

Nevertheless, the overall pattern of unemployment, underemployment, and low-quality employment is an undeniable presence in Honduras. It is a pattern that is based on a series of historical precedents, along with government mismanagement of money and environmental disasters. It is a also a pattern that contributes to the violence and instability that plagues Honduras today, since young women and men turn to gangs and robbery as alternative sources of “employment.” And all of these factors taken together have propelled forward the large-scale emigration from Honduras – frustrated and hungry people have taken their fate into their own hands and seek out a better life in places like the United States. An estimated 1.1 million Hondurans (about 15% of the population) currently live outside the country, a number that eerily approximates the 1.3 million Hondurans estimated to currently be unemployed in the country (though a full 1/3 of the country is underemployed). While the roots and causes of migration are complex and have to do not only with economic difference but also with economic linkage, the influence of current economic opportunities is clear, and understood by young and old throughout Honduras: “Aquí no hay trabajo.”