Endangered mothers or ‘anchor babies’? Migration motivators for pregnant unaccompanied Central American teens

Endangered mothers or ‘anchor babies’? Migration motivators for pregnant unaccompanied Central American teens

Susan Schmidt, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies (September, 27, 2018)

As politicians grapple with global migration policies, traditionally sympathetic populations such as pregnant migrant women now evoke suspicion and fear, evident in US usage of the disparaging term ‘anchor babies.’ Using secondary interview data, this article compares the migration motivations of 11 pregnant unaccompanied teens from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala with the ‘anchor baby’ assumptions.

Open