” Though wages there are a small fraction of U.S. pay”
Which is why they all want to get into El Norte.
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People in Honduras are so deluded about the great paradise to the north. They see movies showing all Americans with fancy cars, fine clothes, name brand shoes and jewelry. They hear about people in the US making $20-$30 an HOUR when in Tegucigalpa they make less than $7.00 per DAY with a standard six day week. They equate those big US wages with their local circumstances, which is all they know, and they think they would be filthy rich if they could just get across that border.
I’ve talked with dozens of Honduran people about this, and they are always shocked to learn it costs probably ten times as much to live in the US. Maybe more. Making $25 an hour doesn’t mean crap if it costs you $26 an hour to survive. And then there’s the hard cold fact that they aren’t anywhere likely to make that kind of money. $12 to $14 MAX is the best they could ever hope for, and if illegal with no work permit, a lot less than that.
People here can get by on their poverty wages because their expenses are almost nil. Most pay no rent or income tax, and there is no need for things like A/C or central heating. Government stays off their backs, and they are floored when they hear how much government regulation is involved in living in the US, and how many fees there are for merely trying to survive.
Besides the fact that they won’t be making those big bucks, it’s not what you make that counts, it’s what you have to spend to get by.
Yeah, I read an article where a Honduran, with wife and four children wanted to get to USA to “find a job, and build a house for him and his family”. Like it is really that simple.