El Norte or Bust!

In this unexpected story of a financial bubble and collapse David Stoll puts a compelling human face on the global economic crisis. Tracing the desperate plight of Latin Americans moving north in search of higher wages he shows how for the Mayas of Nebaj an indigenous town in Guatemala that is running out of land the biggest challenge is finding employment for their youth. The Nebajenses have tried to solve that problem by using U.S. development aid funds<a name=_GoBack></a> to smuggle themselves to the United States and earn enough to support their families back home. As their experience shows migration streams to the United States have become a pyramid scheme in which migrants recoup their losses by transferring risk and with it the increasing likelihood of losing everything they own to their relatives and neighbors. Ever-deepening debt Stoll convincingly argues is the powerful engine driving undocumented migration to the United States.<BR />