In Central America, return migration is a fact of life. Every flight that lands in Guatemala City, San Salvador or Tegucigalpa is bringing home not outsiders but compatriots whose experience abroad has given them skills, vision and global connections. Central America can choose to waste them or to harness their ambition and expertise to transform the region from a place people flee into a destination the world seeks out.

 

America’s Loss Could Be Central America’s Gain

By Anita Isaacs

Ms. Isaacs is a professor of political science at Haverford College. Her research focuses on the reintegration of return migrants in Mexico and Central America.