The socioeconomic situation and the few job opportunities are the reasons why the majority of Nicaraguans, mainly young people, want to flee the national territory, revealed the most recent Cid Gallup poll.
The study indicates that 57% of those surveyed are willing to migrate if they had the economic resources to undertake the trip to a foreign nation. Of that total, 68% who want to flee the country are under 40 years old, that is, the majority are young.
The survey also reveals that 51% answered that the United States would be the destination to start a new course, a response that reflects the reality of the massive migration of Nicaraguans to the North American country.
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Unemployment, the corruption of the dictatorship and the cost of living are the three main problems that overwhelm 69% of Nicaraguans and the reasons that push them to leave the country where they were born and grew up.
“Those who want to emigrate show themselves to be the most disappointed: they are the ones who most believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, those who have the worst family economic situation compared to a year ago, and those who least believe that Ortega will solve their concerns” , indicates the document cited by Confidencial.
“If they finally migrate, they will do so with the certainty that whichever country they choose (the United States, Costa Rica, Spain or Canada, among the preferred ones), they will have a better economic and political future for themselves and their families,” he adds.
The probability of migrating is higher (72%) among people between 18 and 24 years old; 64% among those surveyed from 25 to 39 years old and in the group of 40 years old or more, 44% consider leaving Nicaragua if they had the economic possibility to do so.
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The other destinations that young Nicaraguans would choose to migrate and start looking for opportunities are Costa Rica, Spain and Canada. The first two countries have been the destination of a significant number of nationals who have requested refuge or political asylum in the face of persecution by the regime.
The Cid Gallup poll was applied between September 26 and October 10 of this year. The questions were asked through phone calls to 1,200 citizens, and have a margin of error of +/- 2.8%. The measurement focused on Nicaraguans over 16 years of age, with a cell phone, distributed throughout the country.
Since the sociopolitical crisis of April 2018, more than 200,000 Nicaraguans have left Nicaragua for exile in Costa Rica, that number is only of the people who have requested refuge, but the number could be higher. Between January and September 2022, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English) registered that 126 thousand 287 Nicaraguans irregularly crossed the border to enter North American territory.
The US authorities alleged that this mass migration is due to the fact that many citizens are fleeing “failed authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, which is contributing to a greater number of migrants trying to cross the border.”
