Keeping Heads Above Water: Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica

184 Pages·1993·0.92 MB·English

by  Tanya Basok

Keeping Heads Above Water
Keeping Heads Above Water examines the settlement of Salvadorean refugees
in Costa Rica. It focuses on urban employment programs designed to make
them self-sufficient. These programs were funded and implemented by
various international and domestic, governmental and nongovernmental agen-
cies. The book addresses the question of why some small urban refugee
enterprises failed, and how and why others survive and succeeded. This
analysis is placed in the framework of theories that deal with the survival of
petty commodity production in the capitalist economy. The unique contri-
bution of this book is that it relates refugee settlement to theories of compa-
rative development.
Two theoretical explanations are presented in the book. According to the
first, small noncapitalist enterprises are viable as long as they avoid compe-
tition with capitalist firms. According to the second, known as the articulation
approach, petty commodity producers are functional to capital accumulation
in the capitalist sector and are therefore constantly reproduced by it. The
book criticizes both of these approaches for placing too much emphasis on
external aspects of production. Instead, it suggests that internal aspects of
production, such as technology, labour relations, and organization of produc-
tion, need to be examined in order to understand how informal petty commo-
dity producers survive the competition with capitalist enterprises.
TANYA BASOK is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology
and Sociology, University of Windsor.
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Keeping Heads
Above Water
Salvadorean Refugees
in Costa Rica
TANYA BASOK
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1993
ISBN 0-7735-0977-1
Legal deposit second quarter 1993
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
hh
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant
from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using
funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, and with the aid of a
grant from the Office of the Dean, Faculty of Social
Science, University of Windsor.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Basok, Tanya, 1958-
Keeping heads above water: Salvadorean refugees in
Costa Rica
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-0977-1
1. Salvadorans - Costa Rica - Social conditions.
2. Salvadorans - Costa Rica - Economic conditions.
3. Refugees, Political - El Salvador. 4. Refugees,
Political - Costa Rica. I. Title.
JV7413.B38 1993 325'.21'097284097286 C92-090715-6
Typeset in Times 11/13 by
Caractera production graphique inc., Quebec City.
Contents
Tables vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xxi
Glossary xxiii
PART ONE DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL
1 El Salvador: Why a Refugee Movement? 17
2 Costa Rica as a Country of Asylum 26
3 Social Integration of Salvadoreans 38
PART TWO REFUGEE AID
4 Settlement of Refugees: Types of Assistance 57
5 Durable Solution and Local Settlement Urban
Employment Programs 74
vi Contents
PART THREE EXPLAINING SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS
OF SALVADOREAN URBAN ENTERPRISES
6 Petty Commodity Production: Dissolution and
Conservation 87
7 Relations with the Capitalist Sector 100
8 Internal Aspects of Production 112
Conclusion 129
Appendix 137
Notes 139
Bibliography 143
Index 155
Tables
1 Location and Numbers of Salvadorean Refugees and
Displaced Persons, 1985 24
2 Distribution of Refugees in Costa Rica by Country of
Origin, 1985 27
3 Differences in Costa Rican and Salvadorean
Vocabulary 39
4 Employment in the Informal Sector in Capitals of
Central American Countries, 1982 45
5 Occupational Composition for Costa Rican and
Salvadorean Enterprise Owners, 1982 45
6 Type of Clientele for Costa Rican and Salvadorean
Enterprise Owners 46
7 Monthly Income Levels for Costa Rican and Salvadorean
Enterprise Owners 47
8 UNHCR Monthly Aid according to Size of Family,
1983 58
9 UNHCR Monthly Aid according to Size of Family,
1985 58
viii Tables
10 Agencies Promoting Development Projects for
Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica 62
11 Summary of Projects and Agencies Administering
Them 67
12 Major Differences between Durable Solution and Local
Settlement Programs 75
13 Hours Worked Per Week by Project Beneficiaries 76
14 Occupational Composition of Salvadorean Enterprises,
by Employment Program 77
15 Participation in Local Settlement and Durable Solution
Programs by Gender 82
16 Age Distribution of Salvadorean Refugees 101
17 Educational Level of Salvadorean Refugees 102
18 Civil Status of Salvadorean Refugees 102
19 Occupational Background of Salvadorean Refugees 103
20 Monthly Income of Salvadorean Enterprise Owners
according to Where Raw Materials Were
Purchased 104
21 Small Salvadorean Enterprises according to Type of
Relationship with the Capitalist Sector by
Occupation 109
22 Average Monthly Income by Type of Relationship to the
Capitalist Sector 110
23 Monthly Income Levels according to Type of
Relationship with the Capitalist Sector no
24 Comparison of Incomes of Salvadorean Enterprise
Owners and Apprentices 122
Preface
THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS
The refugee phenomenon is not new: for centuries people have been
forced to flee as a result of wars, feuds, raids, famines, and perse-
cution of individuals. What distinguishes the current refugee crisis
is its unprecedented scale.
Factors that led to the recent refugee explosion can be traced to
the colonial expansion that retarded economic growth in many Third
World countries and created great disparities in wealth, not only
between the developed and developing countries but inside devel-
oping countries as well. These disparities in wealth continued to
grow even after developing countries reached formal independence.
National elites, subservient to foreign interests, need a system of
repression for those who dare to challenge the status quo. To protect
their own economic interests, foreign countries send military aid,
advisers, and, at times, troops to repress dissent. Economic under-
development, dependence, and political repression go hand in hand.
In spite of repression, however, popular discontent in some countries
erupted into liberation struggles and revolutions attacking old foun-
dations (in Angola, Mozambique, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Namibia, Guatemala, and Cuba). These struggles brought about
direct and indirect foreign interventions (the United States in El
Salvador and Chile, for example, the USSR in Afghanistan, and South