Decrease in Migrants Seeking Illegal Employment in Belize

Belize is seeing a decrease in the number of migrants arriving in the country to gain illegal employment. According to the Statistical Institute of Belize, the main reason migrants are coming to Belize is for reunification with family members living in the country. However, while the second main reason is to work, migrants are not coming to work under illegal conditions. According to the CEO of the Ministry of Economic Development, Dr. Osmond Martinez, it is a result of GOB making work permits more accessible.  

Dr. Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development: “Well the immigrants statistics represent two main things within the, or two main components we can say when we do the analysis of data. One is their contribution into the agro-productive sector and the construction sector, but as well it contributes to poverty because when these people come into the country there is no way that they are well established. They are already running from poverty. My parents ran from poverty. My parents ran from crime. My parents became refugees in this country and so I experienced it firsthand, which is not an easy thing to deal with. But at the same time, it have a twofold impact. One is the negative impact which contributes to poverty. And the second one is that their contribution in the agro-productive sector and the construction sector. The hiring of people is more formal. So if you ask the Ministry of Labour, for example, they have been creating a mechanism in place whereby we can import the labour force to participate in the agro-productive sector and the construction sector. If I’m not wrong, just a few days ago you had an interview with the cement factory, you know, who produce cement blocks. And there’s no workers to work on that field. And if you look at my speech, I actually highlighted the service sector, the BPO’s and the tourism sector are boosting and their numbers are better off than where it was in 2019. So it has attracted young people, young educated people who are well rewarded in terms of their salary. So they don’t want to go and work in the construction sector or the agro-productive sector. So the citrus, banana, the sugar industry continue to face challenges year after year and so there is an importation of hundreds and hundreds of workers every year. So for example in 2022 there were 21,000 workers that were imported from Central America so that they can continue to contribute to our economy through the agro-productive and construction sector.”

The number of foreign-born people in the population has decreased.