INTRODUCTION
The unprecedented and precipitous rise of immigrant deportations from the United States has persisted as a topic of political and media intrigue as well as scrutiny for nearly a decade (Gonzalez-Barrera, & Krogstad, 2014; Simanski, 2014). As the largest single source country of immigrants to the United States, particularly unauthorized, Mexico represents the largest share of deportees –approximately 62% of deportations in 2015– (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2015). Deported migrants, involuntarily returned via a formal removal process, now account for a disproportionate share of returnees in Mexico (Masferrer, & Roberts, 2012; Massey, Durand, & Pren, 2015), the majority of whom are working-age, adult males (91% aged 20-49 and 7% female). Recent socio-political actions have led to an increasingly diverse deportee population both demographically and in terms of their needs upon return (Suárez & Cárdenas Alaminos, 2019; TRAC Immigration, 2014).
The arrival of deportees, commonly at one of Mexico’s 15 key repatriation points, brings numerous challenges to both deportees and the receiving border cities. It also raises questions about deportees’ basic needs regarding how and who will meet them. On the institutional level,4 the Mexican government at the federal, state, and local levels has primarily focused on formalized initiatives for particular subpopulations which provide specific information to deportees (for background see Instituto Nacional de Migración, 2016, 2021; O'Boyle, 2017; Suárez & Cárdenas Alaminos, 2019). Emergent research suggests that the Mexican Government’s initiatives lack planning, support, and funding (Alanís Enciso, 2015; López, 2017; Suárez & Cárdenas Alaminos, 2019). In the absence of funding and programming, scholars emphasize the fundamental presence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (López, 2017; París Pombo, Buenrostro Mercado, & Pérez Duperou, 2017; París Pombo, 2010). The NGOs are frequently deportees’ primary contact for support, service provision, and integration.
Sizeable works of literature in public affairs, nonprofit management, sociology, and economics broadly theorize about and assess the existence of NGOs operating adjacent to governments, particularly when governments are unable to fully address groups’ needs (Clark, 1993; Coston, 1998; Ruben, Van Houte, & Davids, 2009; Salomon & Toepler, 2015; Scholten & Penninx, 2016; Young, 2000). Adjacent literature has also analyzed the hybrid nature of NGOs, which frequently span many fields or serve multiple missions, including service provision, value promotion, and mutual aid (Chikoto & Halicki, 2013; Hasenfeld & Gidron, 2005). They also operate as hybrids (Smith, 2014) or organizations combining elements of volunteer-run organizations, social movements, and traditional nonprofit service providers.
Here we extend the literature on nonprofits to assess whether the NGOs serving deportees in Mexico (hereafter called migrant-serving NGOs (MSNGOs)) contribute to public value. The idea of public value, stemming from public administration literature, was conceptualized originally to explain the tangible and intangible contributions that the public sector (i.e., most frequently the government) makes to benefit public goods (Mendel, 2013). Recently scholars have empirically demonstrated, using case studies, that nonprofit organizations contribute substantially to public value through their actions (Mendel, 2013). Here, we build on the work of scholars, such as Suárez and Cárdenas Alaminos (2019), who analyzed Mexico’s federal government policies and programs for deportees, and Pombo et al. (2018), who analyzed MSNGOs in Tijuana through mixed methods, in-depth interview, and survey data collected. Additionally, we are guided by the criteria used by Moulton and Eckerd (2012) to evaluate a nonprofit’s contribution to public value (described in further detail below).
Building off prior literature, we evaluate the extent to which MSNGOs promote public value in Tijuana, Mexico. This helps to understand better the role of MSNGOs in serving deportees, an at- risk population reliant on others for support to rebuild their lives, making them a vital focus in MSNGOs’ contribution to public value. Public value promotes the benefits to migrants’ successful reintegration into society.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Mexican Context for Deportees
Currently, deportation is a global phenomenon with notable populations returning to many countries around the world including Mexico. Tijuana, Mexico, is one of the largest and most geographically significant deportee-receiving communities in Mexico and is on the frontline for absorbing a sizeable share of deported Mexican nationals (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Estimates from the Mexican National Institute of Migration suggest that in 2009 almost 180,000 Mexicans were repatriated through Tijuana (París Pombo, 2010). Nearly one-third of those deportees remained in the city instead of returning to their community of origin elsewhere in Mexico (París Pombo, Buenrostro Mercado, & Pérez Duperou, 2017; Quinones, & Hoagland, 2014), often out of necessity or because of its proximity to Southern California (Hagan, Eschbach, & Rodriguez, 2008). Moreover, focusing on Tijuana allows us to respond to calls from other scholars to consider regional specificity and the political context in which NGOs operate (Chikoto, & Halicki, 2013; De Graauw, Gleeson, & Bloemraad, 2013).
The Mexican Government has formalized initiatives for returned migrants and deportees. These efforts have included reintegration and human rights information campaigns as early as the 1990s, though most of these were not deportee specific. Most notably, in 2014, the Mexican Government under the leadership of President Peña Nieto established Somos Mexicanos. This program was a continuation of the Human Repatriation Program, which started in Tijuana in 2008. The program aims to help returnees settle, find employment, and navigate government agencies to obtain identification documents (Instituto Nacional de Migración, 2016, 2018).
Despite these government initiatives, scholarly evaluations suggest that the Mexican Government provides little oversight or direction for implementation (Suárez & Cárdenas Alaminos, 2019). These governmental efforts have been shown to lack coordination, programming, funding, and evaluation, leaving deportees needing help. The Government’s programs are an incomplete solution given their limited ability to serve and reach all deportees, yet the city of Tijuana is confronted increasingly with the needs of a growing deportee population.
As deportations and wide-scale changes to migration patterns continue (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012; Massey, Durand, & Pren, 2015), scholars have begun documenting the void left by the Mexican Government filled by the presence of nonprofits (París Pombo, Buenrostro Mercado, & Pérez Duperou, 2017; Suárez & Cárdenas Alaminos, 2019). Many NGOs in Tijuana that currently serve migrants were founded in the mid-1980s and 1990s following immigration reforms in the United States (e.g., the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and immigration reform in the 1990s), which parallel the initiation of Mexican repatriation programs.
The scholars París Pombo, Buenrostro Mercado, and Pérez Duperou (2017) provide a brief history of the most visible migrant-serving organizations in Tijuana. They highlight the foundation of the Scalabrini Casa del Migrante in 1987, the Casa YMCA for youth migrants in 1990, the Instituto Madre Assunta focusing on the needs of migrant women and their children in 1994, and Padre Chava Casa de los Pobres in 1999 to provide for migrants’ basic needs.5París Pombo et al. (2018) extended their analysis of the civil society response in Tijuana to new flows of Haitian and Central American migrants. In this report, MSNGOs are classified according to their date of establishment, infrastructure, geographical location, and the number and type of migrants served. In doing so, they identify pioneer, recent, and emerging MSNGOs. We highlight these classifications in Table 2.
Regardless of their label as a pioneer, recent, or emerging MSNGO, these organizations may be readily adaptable and responsive to social, political, and cultural changes and needs, thus contributing to public value (De Graauw, Gleeson, & Bloemraad, 2013; Hasenfeld & Gidron, 2005). This is evident as some of the MSNGOs mentioned above have shifted their attention to help deportees arriving in Tijuana in response to the influx of deportees in the past decade (París Pombo, Buenrostro Mercado, & Pérez Duperou, 2017).
Much of what underlies the rapid responses of these hybrid organizations is the idea of public value. While researchers have generally focused on the role of the public sector (i.e., government) to provide public value or collective good of society, there are growing indications that the public sector is incapable of generating public value alone (Moulton & Eckerd, 2012). Simply stated, nonprofits generate and contribute to public value by linking public policy to actual implementation (Mendel, 2003). Public value “results as nonprofits perform their work and serve constituents, form and strengthen social networks, sustain social capital, build community and nurture the bonds of trust that comprise civil society” (Mendel, 2013, p. 6). Public value focuses on outcomes and has meaning for those who benefit from it (Alford & O'Flynn, 2009).
To date, multiple classifications or criteria schemes have been developed to analyze how nonprofits contribute to public value, though not our focus. Here, based on the classifications developed by Moulton and Eckerd (2012), we analyze whether MSNGOs in Tijuana contribute to public value. The six roles that nonprofits can occupy to contribute to public value include service delivery, innovation, advocacy, individual expression, community building, and citizen engagement. Below, Table 1 provides brief descriptions of each public value role to be used as a reference as we utilize these role classifications throughout our analyses to describe the multiple ways that MSNGOs serve as public value organizations.
Role | Description |
---|---|
Service Delivery | Providing needed services not provided (adequately) by other sectors. |
Innovation | Developing new approaches to existing (social or public) problems. |
Advocacy | Engaging directly in the political process to influence public policy outcomes. |
Individual Expression | Allowing participants to express their values, commitments, and faith. |
Community Building | Building reciprocal relationships and community. |
Citizen Engagement | Facilitating public education campaigns and participatory democracy. |
Source: Elaborated by the authors based on Moulton and Eckerd (2012).
Service delivery focuses on how nonprofits provide services when the market or government does not. Innovation is about creating new solutions to solve problems. Individual expression allows volunteers, staff, and donors to express values. Political advocacy influences public policy, while community building is about fostering community. Finally, citizen engagement actions connect disconnected individuals to the government (Moulton & Eckerd, 2012). Since the MSNGOs are all theoretically hybrid organizations, we do not expect that all the MSNGOs will contribute fully or similarly across all the roles. However, we anticipate that MSNGOs will report their contributions to more than one role of public value. In the following analysis, we analyze whether the MSNGOs serving deportees in Tijuana contribute to public value via these six roles.
DATA AND METHODS
We aim to investigate the role of MSNGOs in creating public value using data collected from interviews, surveys, and field observations with MSNGOs in Tijuana in July of 2016. To supplement this information, we incorporate published data on Mexican Government programs and summary results from Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte de México (EMIF- Norte, 2020).
The initial step of the MSNGO data collection was to identify the organizations serving migrants, regardless of the services provided. To locate MSNGOs in Tijuana, the project’s primary investigator (PI) used social media and mainstream news reports, Mexican Government web pages, internet-based searches, and published scholarly articles. The search yielded a list of all known non-profit and social service organizations serving deportees in Tijuana, 30 organizations in total.6 Using this as the universe of migrant-serving organizations, the authors contacted all 30 organizations on the list via email or telephone in the spring of 2016 using publicly available information.7
We employed a standardized and approved recruitment script outlining the study’s purpose and procedures to request participation. The primary criteria for inclusion in the study was that the organization provided at least one service (e.g., help with finding work, housing, or resources) to deported migrants in Tijuana. If the organization reported that part of its operating mission involved providing services or support to deportees, we requested their participation. The PI’s Institutional Review Board approved all components of the study. All participants were asked to provide their verbal consent to participate, and we gave them a copy of the bilingual consent form. No monetary compensation was provided to participants. For confidentiality reasons, we only identify the MSNGOs and not the directors of the respective MSNGOs by name. We name the MSNGOs to provide historical documentation of these institutions and facilitate future research and data collections.
The data collection took place in July 2016 in Tijuana at each MSNGO’s physical location.8 The director or most senior-level administrator of each MSNGO (n=15) participated in a short survey lasting approximately 20 minutes, while semi-structured in-person interviews lasted about one hour. They included questions on the organizational structure, services provided, factors related to how deportees locate the organization, and general characteristics of the populations served. Surveys were administered electronically on an iPad using RedCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), a secure, web-based encrypted application provided by Vanderbilt University. Surveys and interviews were conducted in Spanish or English, depending on the respondent’s preference. The interviews were recorded using a digital audio recorder and then transcribed and translated (if necessary) verbatim by three undergraduate students and verified by the research team. The coding took place in two stages. First, the interviews were coded inductively after careful reading and analysis of the transcripts. Then, deductive codes were generated from the literature in the fields of organizations, migration, and nonprofits. Both coding processes inform the analysis. Quantitative results come from the 15 surveys which were analyzed in Stata 14.0.
FINDINGS
Table 2 describes the general characteristics of the 15 interviewed MSNGOs. While some of the MSNGOs have had a long-standing presence in Tijuana (e.g., Salvation Army-1957 or Casa del Migrante-1987), six others were established within five years of the survey date (i.e., since 2011). Furthermore, the MSNGOs interviewed were split in terms of whether they were established exclusively to serve deportees or migrants flowing north or south more generally. MSNGO directors often specified their target population in terms of gender, age, and vulnerability (i.e., addiction, poverty). Unsurprisingly, almost one-half of the organizations are located within ten minutes of the Mexico-U.S. border.9 The MSNGOs self-reported on the wide range of services provided from food and housing to health care, employment, and religious services. The MSNGOs varied in terms of the scale with six organizations serving less than 100 clients, six serving between 100 and 300, and the remaining serving several thousand. These results closely mirror the findings by París Pombo et al. (2018) regarding the MSNGOs in Tijuana.
Organization | Year Established |
Established to Serve Deportees10 |
Target Population |
Distance to Mexico-U.S. Border |
Services Provided | # Clients Served11 |
Pombo et al. (2018) classification* 12 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Casa del Migrante en Tijuana, A.C. |
1987 | No | Migrants in transit |
10-19 minutes | Temporary shelter and food; health, legal, and psychiatric services, obtaining official documents, referrals to other institutions, hold money/documents for people |
120 | Pioneer |
Casa Para Migrantes y Restauración Jehovah Protege su Pueblo |
NA | Yes | Deported migrants |
10-19 minutes | Temporary shelter and food | 80 | Emergent* |
Casas YMCA de Menores Migrantes, Tijuana |
1989 | Yes | Youth migrants | 20+ minutes | Temporary shelter and food; coordination across services |
75 | Pioneer* |
Consejo Estatal de Atención al Migrante |
2013 | Yes | Quasi- Governmental Migrant Issues |
< 10 minute | A bridge between nonprofits and government |
250,000/y ear |
N/A |
Deported Veterans Support House |
2013 | Yes | Former military members |
10-19 minutes | Legal assistance; counseling; access to medical and military records |
200 | Recent* |
Desayunador Salesiano, De La Peña (or Proyecto Salesiano de Tijuana, Desayunador Padre Chava) |
1999 | No | Anyone in need of social services |
< 10 minutes | Food; clothes, personal hygiene, obtaining ID documents, health, training, and education; help obtaining education funding |
1,000/day | Pioneer |
Instituto Madre Asunta | 1994 | No | Female migrants and their children |
10-19 minutes | Temporary shelter and food, clothing, doctor, psychologist, lawyer, workshops and orientations within health prevention, violence |
1,400 | Pioneer |
La Roca del Alfarero (or Albergue la Roca) |
2012 | No | Anyone needing help from addiction or other social services and temporary shelter |
< 10 minutes | Assisting families, particularly those impacted by addiction |
200 | Emergent |
La Viña de Tijuana A.C. (The Tijuana Vineyard) |
2001 | No Response |
Deportees and the homeless |
< 10 minutes | Temporary shelter and food | 75 | Recent |
Madres Soñadoras Internacional (DREAMers Moms USA/Tijuana) |
2014 | Yes | Deported mothers |
10-19 minutes | Workshops, classes, psychological support, and legal services |
48 | Recent* |
Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro |
2011 | No | Deported migrants |
10-19 minutes | Weekly religious services and humanitarian aid |
50 | Recent* |
Misión Evangélica Roca de Salvación A.C. |
2008 | Yes | Anyone in need of shelter |
20+ minutes | Temporary shelter and food | 130 | Emergent |
Movimiento Juventud 2000 Zona Norte, Secc. Tijuana A.C. |
1993 (2011 for deportees) |
No | The most vulnerable and needy people |
< 10 minutes | Various welfare programs | 33 | Recent |
Salvation Army (Ejército de Salvación, Men) |
1957 | No | Male migrants | < 10 minutes | Temporary shelter and food | 120/day | Pioneer |
Salvation Army (Ejército de Salvación Casa Puerta de Esperanza, Women) |
2015 | Yes | Female migrants and their children |
< 10 minutes | Temporary shelter and food, psychological and legal services |
300 | Pioneer |
Source: Authors data collection from interviews conducted to MSNGOs’ directors in Tijuana, Mexico.
Table 3 provides a summary of descriptive characteristics of the populations helped by the MSNGOs. Not all directors provided information for each indicator; therefore, we provide summary information and the number of responses for each item. A majority of the MSNGOs currently focus their service provision on deportees, who are primarily men. Most MSNGO directors reported that most of the deportees they serve are between 20 and 40 years of age, have a secondary level education, and had extended durations of residence in the United States before deportation.
Explanatory Variables | Percentage (%) | Number (n) |
---|---|---|
Currently serve deported immigrants | -- | 12 |
Exclusively | 91.67 | 11 |
Primarily | 8.33 | 1 |
-- | ||
Percentage of deportees from the United States |
8 | |
< 26% | 12.50 | 1 |
26%-50% | 25.00 | 2 |
51%-75% | 25.00 | 2 |
51%-75% | 37.50 | 3 |
75%+ | 12.50 | 8 |
Primarily serve men | 64.29 | 14 |
Primary age served | -- | 15 |
Majority under the age of 20 | 6.67 | 1 |
Majority between ages 20 and 40 | 80.00 | 12 |
Majority between ages 40 and 50 | 13.33 | 2 |
Educational attainment | ||
Majority with primary education | 30.77 | 4 |
Majority with a secondary or beyond | 69.23 | 9 |
Time in the United States | -- | 14 |
Majority lived in the U.S. for 1 to < 5 years | 21.43 | 3 |
Majority lived in the U.S. for 5 to < 10 years | 21.43 | 3 |
Majority lived in the U.S. for 10 to < 20 years |
57.14 | 8 |
Source: Authors’ data collection from interviews conducted to MSNGOs’ directors in Tijuana, Mexico.
The MSNGO directors also provided insight into their operating budgets, funding sources, workforce, and operational needs (Table 4). The average monthly budgets for the majority of the MSNGOs (9 out of 15) were modest —spending less than 5,000 USD per month—. Four of the MSNGOs had sizeable operating budgets above 10,000 USD per month and the remaining 11 had operating budgets less than 10,000 USD per month. Notably, only two organizations reported receiving financial support from governmental agencies, while the remaining 13 MSNGOs did not report any governmental monetary support. Also noticeable is that the MSNGOs rely on charitable donations, philanthropy, and unpaid volunteers to sustain their organizations. The majority of MSNGOs reported economic need as the primary challenge they face in operating their organization.
Explanatory Variables | Percentage (%) | Number (n) |
---|---|---|
Average Monthly Budget (U.S. dollars) | -- | 15 |
< $500-$1,000 | 26.67 | 4 |
$1,000-$3,000 | 20.00 | 3 |
$3,000-$5,000 | 13.33 | 2 |
$5,000-$10,000 | 13.33 | 2 |
$10,000+ | 26.67 | 4 |
Source of Funding | -- | 15 |
Member contributions | 13.33 | 2 |
Donations from foundations or other charities |
13.33 | 2 |
Contributions of local/regional national government |
13.33 | 2 |
Church contributions | 6.67 | 1 |
Donations from private companies | 6.67 | 1 |
Other sources not disclosed | 46.67 | 7 |
Percent Volunteer Work | -- | 12 |
None | 16.67 | 2 |
<= 25% | 16.67 | 2 |
51-75% | 16.67 | 2 |
75%+ | 50.00 | 6 |
Primary Need | -- | 14 |
Economic | 71.43 | 10 |
Member Training | 7.14 | 1 |
More Collaboration with like Organizations |
7.14 | 1 |
More Government Collaboration | 14.29 | 2 |
Source: Authors data collection from interviews conducted to MSNGOs’ directors in Tijuana, Mexico.
Subsequently, we turn to the analysis of how MSNGOs provide public value through the six roles discussed previously. Table 5 provides direct quotations from MSNGO directors related to each role. The qualitative data in Table 5 provides evidence consistent with the idea that the MSNGOs contribute to public value across many roles in Tijuana.
Public Value Roles | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Organization Name |
Service Delivery | Innovation | Advocacy | Individual Expression |
Community Building |
Citizen Engagement |
Desayunador Salesiano, De La Peña (or Proyecto Salesiano de Tijuana, Desayunador Padre Chava) |
"We have food activities, introduction activities, baths, clothing, donation of shoes, communication with the north and south, attention to personal cases, attention seeking personal key documents that they do not have. The whole question of health and taking care of hair. And from here forwards trainings and such, over all the secondary education so that, trainings that they’ve had in the United States looking for authentication here in society. That they are declared capable of doing everything that they should be able to do. And then, another part would be training for those that never before had their training declared official, especially for those who had to migrate without having school support. Here we look for fundamental support, for primary, secondary, even high school, and even to college and so that they can be useful later in life" (Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
[We are] "a social entity that provides some services but would claim to provide many others, above all to the location of the persons in their full realization" (Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava director, personal communication, July 26, 2016) |
-- | "My intention, above all, was to orient these people towards the world of work. And for a future that is not only possible in the United States, but it is possible in Mexico, right?" (Desayunador Salesiano “Padre Chava” director, personal communication, July 26, 2016) |
"The strongest force we have here, in general, are the volunteers, right? Also, the workers, which are the heart, which are the mind, the hands [of God]." "Here, I count on the collaboration of people who have been here much longer, right? Who know the situations more definitively, and well, the strongest force we have here in general are the volunteers, right?" (Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava director, personal communication, July 26, 2016) |
"I think society would have to understand that many of the things that happen to the deportees are the result of an illegal social situation, not well structured and that society should be capable of removing the guilt that they have in this process. And in this, I involved all of society, but especially those responsible are the states of the north and south. This is of the line. This is United States and Mexico" (Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava director, personal communication, July 26, 2016) |
Casa del Migrante en Tijuana, A.C. |
"We give the same services to everyone. To all the migrants equally. What—what services do we provide, well, housing, food, health, legal services, psychiatric services, medical, employment, help in the processes to get official documents " (Casa del Migrante en Tijuana director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
"We hold money for people, documents. We have a saving bank system. We have a program—people don’t stay the full four and a half months here. Here they stay a month and a half. After that we rent a house outside and we put two or three person there, and they can live like any other normal people, but we pay the rent for three months. And um, the migrants who already left, that aren’t with us anymore, they have the opportunity to use all the services that we have, minus the housing. They can come and eat, have breakfast, dinner, they can come and consult the lawyer, they can come and consult the psychologist, they can save their money in the bank. We also pay for their interest if they offer us good money, we will give it to them, um, all the services, they can use all of the services without being in the house" (Casa del Migrante en Tijuana director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | "Our job is with migrants, deportees or no deportees, but migrants. And that has a very particular seal. The migrant is looking for better conditions in life, and then a better condition in life comes to be seen if a person wants to better themselves. And to better yourself, you have to find the paths and the ways, school or work, etc. We’ll help them with that. But we don’t give food to give food, or come and sleep, it doesn’t matter. No. We want to help people a bit more integrally” (Casa del Migrante en Tijuana director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
[We show] "them to other institutions. Um, the social workers that make connections with other organizations that have other services we don’t provide" (Casa del Migrante en Tijuana director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- |
Instituto Madre Asunta |
"The house. The activity is to provide shelter and provide clothing, food, all the services that I told you about. Doctor, lawyer, psychologist. Workshops and orientations within health prevention, violence" (Instituto Madre Asunta director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | "Fully humanitarian. Yes. It is always in the defense of human rights of migrants and the process to create public policies that support the processes of migrants." (Instituto Madre Asunta director personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | -- | "We also network, we have several [...] we have a [group] called Weary Feet (Pies Cansados), we have the Facebook Madre Asunta, we also have flyers that are left in the travel center, in churches, airports" (Instituto Madre Asunta director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
Salvation Army (Ejército de Salvación, Men) |
"[We house] an average of 120 per day or per night, and we feed them, [we pay] the gas, the water, the light, everything that is involved in running this program seems like a lot to me. And we also have a separate group of women on Tuesday who meet up. And at the end of every month, we also have an average of 60 families who come for handouts" (Salvation Army Men Shelter director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
"We have a special dormitory, let’s say, or separate to receive deportees, because we understand that they are the ones that come a bit more vulnerable from the situation in their lives that they had there, and they come, they come grave here, because it’s a very difficult change. So, there are many considerations for them, and there’s a special dormitory for them. They don’t follow the rules of the rest of the people, because they have their own special program, their own special space" (Salvation Army Men Shelter director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
-- | "I ask myself, “Where does all of this come from,” you know, because if I bought it, no way, I wouldn’t have the money to buy it. But everything comes out of that. So, I’m happy, right, with this experience. Why? Because we do a lot of work, and somehow God provides what we need. And forgive me for talking about God, but—you do see the hand of God in this, right?" (Salvation Army Men Shelter director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
-- | -- |
Salvation Army (Ejército de Salvación Casa Puerta de Esperanza, Women) |
"The services that we give are the housing, the food, and a safe place for the women and their children. And those services are also social work, psychological, and if in some moment it is needed, everything that has to do with their legal situation" "[We help them] find work, a safe place to live, and incorporated themselves into society again, to work activities, to their life in Tijuana" (Salvation Army Women Shelter director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
[We offer] "everything that has to do with psychology. Activities—there are activities for the kids and handy work for the women. Crafts, devotionals, Christian devotionals, and a few other workshops" (Salvation Army Women Shelter director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | -- | -- | -- |
Casas YMCA de Menores Migrantes, Tijuana |
"It’s an organization that gives civil services, profit functions that provides important basic necessities to a migrant population of ages of high vulnerability between 13 to 17 years old" (Casas YMCA de Menores Migrantes director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
"Young people have to—to be contacted by their families, or else, for those that stay for a longer period, they have access to our other installations, physical and sport, that they can participate in" (Casas YMCA de Menores Migrantes director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
-- | -- | -- | "My responsibilities include the operation of the four houses along the frontier, keeping institutional relationships with other organizations. Be they civil associations, investigative, or government. That way the buildup of projects pays to facilitate the sustainability of the program" (Casas YMCA de Menores Migrantes director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
Movimiento Juventud 2000 Zona Norte, Secc. Tijuana A.C. |
"It [is] an organization of civil society with attention on the most vulnerable, needy people, and with various welfare programs, and one of them is the migrant community" (Movimiento Juventud 2000 director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | "I think I have a role that is shared in all areas, and I have never liked injustice. I have a role where I always get ahead of all things where I get the opportunity to participate, of course, and within what the organization, well, and the role of Chema to come, to watch, speak and even mediate the authorities before the people or the same people we support here in the shelter" (Movimiento Juventud 2000 director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
-- | "The purpose of Juventud 2000 is that. To make and to support the community, even people that live in the north [the US]. Why? For being a place very abandoned by the authorities despite being in the central area" (Movimiento Juventud 2000 director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
"But in reality, based on the organizations, based on raising your voice, and say that the immigration issue, or migrants, are people like us. If there was no talk of that definition, well now, there is talk about that definition, that we are all migrants when we arrive at the border to go to any city. You're moving from your place of origin. But for now, they are people who go looking for employment, but they are also people who even come to create jobs, and they are coming from their places or origin, from work, or to implement businesses for the same community where they want to be received. Therefore, the immigration issue, or migrant, well it’s significant and it’s been done, and it’s understood that not all come to do bad things, most coming to generate even resources, work, and jobs for places where they get settled" (Movimiento Juventud 2000 director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). |
La Viña de Tijuana A.C. (The Tijuana Vineyard) |
"The organization serves the deportees, homeless people [by providing] educational and spiritual services" (La Viña de Tijuana director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
[We] "teach them and give them advice and orient them. Give them direction in their way of thinking, so they can find a job […] to get them out of their funk" (La Viña de Tijuana director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
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Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro |
"The new program is specifically addressing deportees., and so we’ll be targeting deportees who have lived the majority of their life in the United States and don’t have a place to go when they get to Tijuana. They don’t have family connections. They don’t have a city that they know. And those deportees are who we are going to help with our “Integral” our program Integral, the holistic kinda comprehensive program. We’ll be specifically for those deportees" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016) |
[The mission] "is the spiritual care for peace and hope for the resolution for a human problem that is deportation and migration. That’s the most relevant, the way we can serve people however we can psychologically, medically and we try to place them in a job. But in the future, we have an organization that does spiritual work, rescues people, and then helps psychologically and with social work so that they can become residents of the city, while they manage their immigration status" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
[The Sunday Service] "is really to continue to be a presence for border patrol, to show that the space is necessary. To show that the space is demanded to be open. And to work with these U.S. coalitions who are working to try to continue to have access to, better access more access, to late families actually hug through the bar, and not just touch their pinkies through the mesh. We would really like for them to be able to approach without the mesh, that’s one of our big asks right now. So consistently fighting to for more" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"Being in a permanent geographical location — well every Sunday— because that’s the first function, that they know we're there. So that migrants tell each other, "On Sunday there are people who can help us." And so, presence is number one. And we do spiritual work to bring peace and hope, in addition to providing humanitarian aid, food, clothing, personal hygiene accessories" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"The pastoral visit to the bunker of the deported moms, pastoral visit to families separated here in Mexico, and the entire organizational matter or government relations with companies or individuals to do projects" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016) |
"Our [Sunday church] service [in Friendship Park] is mainly just to be there to—on the U.S. side. really, all we can do is stand in solidarity with them. And so that’s why he was saying this act of—the activism of the church—we are there really to be a presence, and our mission is to show that God’s love have no borders. I mean that’s really what we’re there for" (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
Deported Veterans Support House |
"We serve people […] who served during the Vietnam era, to current Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans who’ve served illegally in the United States and were deported during some kind of infraction or crime they committed" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"We are working with the ACLU, not only to work with them for the database but they’re doing it for legal intake [...]." "[...] It’s a search for legal avenues or loopholes within the illegal system and immigration system where they can be addressed to be able to file the necessary petitions for them to be able to return to the United States." […] "And the other one is the benefits, military upgrades, fighting for their medical records, and their military records. We’re also doing counseling [...]" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"Some of the other activities are, for example, awareness activities like, we call them protests, but we call them vigils? down at the border to increase the awareness of the people going back to the United States, crossing back over because it is the world’s most transited border crossing" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"Social media since a lot of our veterans are not physically here, actually, the majority aren’t, so everything online with social media even if they’re not specific events through different groups that we have, we’re able to engage with them and to get them involved in the efforts" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"Just recently, part of what we worked out in this area is that we gained acceptance and a relationship with a very strong group of veterans in the United States called ‘Veterans for Bernie’ and that’s one of the great things about some of the actions that the group has done, is that because of the activities that we have been able to put together, it has created that type of a network with very important groups like ‘Veterans for Bernie,’ ‘Veterans for Peace,’ and these things can only have been achieved by actually going out and creating actions" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"We definitely have access to a lot of active military duty personnel that’s going to come across and of course with motto ‘leave no man behind’ is an area that we can target so that they too can become aware that some of their own fellow veterans and military personnel, that they might have even served with, are no longer allowed to return to their country that they fought for. So, this way we can also have them come on board and they can exercise- I don’t want to say pressure because that’s not going to work, but at least spread the word and create more awareness of other fellow military personnel so that we can get and create more and more awareness" (Deported Veterans Support House director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
Madres Soñadoras Internacional (DREAMers Moms USA/Tijuana) |
"We provide services to women, men also, and any deportee who needs our help. We also provide services to United States citizens who are living together with their parents here in Tijuana due to their deportation" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"The main activities are our weekly meeting every Thursday, where we have workshops, English classes, knitting classes. From 5 to 7, we have the psychological support, which is where we treat any problem, some need that has to do with us" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"I have made relationships with the government, with the lawyers." "We also offer legal services. We have attorney who is working with us. They also teach us how to fill out paperwork, how to take the digital sheets, how to ask for records. So for us, it is like a training that we are doing so that fellow deportees don’t pay $500 for a lawyer because they ask for records, fill out a paperwork, waiver, or whatever. We are trying—rather at the end, those who already learned, and that’s how we are avoiding having fellow deportees pay 500 dollars for a single document" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"My main role is to be, first a moral support for my fellow companions. So, they know that there is hope, that they are not alone" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"We are doing it, is to go to schools, churches, to talk to more civil associations and explain that you have to receive the deportee with kindness, because in fact we already come suffering, because we are separated from our families, because our future and what we had, what we worked so many years for is lost, and we reach our own country, and feel rejected by our own countrymen. We are going to schools, to high schools, where we are giving talks explaining why we are here, why we went, because many people think that we abandoned or betrayed our country, and after we’ve already been tossed, and we want to insert ourselves into society. You need to sensitize people, so that they know we are suffering, that we were not traitors, we simply sought a better life. And now we are here trying to reintegrate into our society and to feel the rejection makes it harder, so to create an awareness and to give a good example and give an acceptable moral quality to remove the social stigma I think this is hard work, but I think we have achieved many things" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
"We do it on Thursdays by a radio station where I participate each week. We do it by media. By radio, television, newspapers, magazines, social media. So now we can say that we are covering [a large area] and it is very good because we are doing it internationally. We are expecting a National Geographic video that will come out in various parts of the world. We have worked with Al Jazeera. We are working very very strong so that people will know what is happening and we can achieve a stop to the deportation of parents of U.S. citizens" (DREAMers Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016). |
Casa Para Migrantes y Restauración Jehovah Protege su Pueblo |
"First of all, for the people who were deported and come here, we give them 21 days. Totally free [of obligations]. [We] "put them in communication with the government, so that they can give them a document […] meaning, we give them the phone numbers, so that they can find work" (Casa Para Migrantes y Restauración Jehovah Protege su Pueblo director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
"We provide resources to drug-addicted people. We give them information for them to go to a different center so they could get better. That is, we take them to the centers" (Casa Para Migrantes y Restauración Jehovah Protege su Pueblo director, personal communication, July 28, 2016). |
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Roca de Salvación (Misión Evangélica Roca de Salvación) |
"We take in people. The border calls us up with information about a person and they ask us if that person can come stay with us and we say yes. Our service is to provide shelter to people who have nowhere to go, where they can spend a few days or however long they need. Here we give them meals, blankets, some clothes and sometimes even shoes. We cover the basic needs of those who arrive here. And we also offer to those who want to go back to their place of origin, their ticket home. For others, employment opportunities" (Roca de Salvación director, personal communication, July 29, 2016). |
-- | -- | "We want them to feel good. We don’t want them to feel marginalized or forgotten. We want them to feel that someone wants to lend a helping hand" (Roca de Salvación director, personal communication, July 29, 2016). |
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La Roca del Alfarero (or Albergue La Roca) |
"La Roca’s focus is to help, to serve, and to restore families. Restore and help anyone who has a need. Not only in drugs but any person who is hurt or is in pain" (Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
"Sometimes with drugs, we don’t really know the root of the problem is addiction. Look for addiction...heal what they bring from the past, from their childhood, all that. Then seeks refuge in the way that the jury that is drugs, especially alcoholism. But really the problem comes from their emotions, their feelings. That is the focus of La Roca, working on it. Restore all the people that are hurt, who are fallen, who are in pain. And bring the Word [of God] to different parts of the world. That’s what we are called to do" (Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
"Well, we try to orient more or less people in the situation or what they will think— most people already know their legal situation, then sometimes we try to guide them on that side. If they already know their legal status, so that they can try to find something they already had but didn’t take advantage, they did not care. So, there we focus on that" (Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016) |
"Well, to make men of God. Knowers of the word, and doers, and family men. So that they can—even if they are here, they are separated from their wives and their wives and other couples, but that they don’t come and have their children, that they have people to look out for them" (Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
"Well, we can say that we try to—we use the internet to try, not so much publicity, but rather make people, people who do not know the situation—people who live here in Tijuana who don’t know what the situation experienced by the deportee. Or the person who sometimes doesn’t have a living, a support. Then we try to use the internet to for that end, to see what they are doing here in Tijuana. And there’s a lot of need but little the desire of people to help or work for it" (Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016). |
Source: Authors data collection from interviews conducted to MSNGOs’ directors in Tijuana, Mexico.
During the interview, in addition to the survey data summarized in Table 2 regarding the services MSNGOs provide, directors discussed their organization’s service delivery. They ranged from the Salvation Army Shelter for women and children to Madre Asunta and La Roca, almost unanimously stating that their organizations address basic needs such as providing food and shelter. The director of La Roca shelter captured the base level of need his group aims to satisfy: “They are given study, food, everything. Everything needed to be good people, right?” (La Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016).
The MSNGO directors also discussed their role in assisting deportees to obtain documents and identification. In Mexico, deportees who lack identity documents face exclusion from institutions, resources, and services (i.e., housing, jobs, schooling, and health care). In essence, government documents and identification provided deportees legitimacy in their country of origin. The director of Madre Asunta emphasized the importance of obtaining documents: “Well, if you can get documented, if you can get your birth certificate, your credential you can get a job and you can lift yourself up” (Madre Asunta director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). Despite the necessity of proper Mexican identification, many deportees are unable to independently navigate Mexican bureaucracies, which further their reliance on MSNGO’s guidance. Unprompted, several directors showed the interviewers numerous binders of birth certificates and other documents they had helped deportees acquire.
The MSNGOs also contribute to public value by innovating their services and/or delivery to address social problems that migrants and deportees face. An overarching theme about innovation was that MSNGOs spoke about services beyond meeting a deportees’ basic needs. Instead, they are seen and served as whole people. This ranged from the Salvation Army men’s shelter opening a dorm just for deportees to banking services at the Casa del Migrante and providing psychological services at the Salvation Army women’s shelter. Several shelters, including the Jehovah shelter and La Roca, developed programs to serve deportees with drug addictions.
Several MSNGO directors spoke of how their organization contributed to public value through advocacy. This was simply stated by the director of the organization Madre Asunta who described their mission as “Fully humanitarian. Yes. It is always in the defense of human rights of migrants, and the process to create public policies that support the processes of migrants” (Madre Asunta director, personal communication, July 27, 2016). In addition to serving the needs of vulnerable deported women and other migrants, Madre Asunta used their position to influence public policy about the human rights of migrants, particularly making women and their children their focal service population. On the other hand, organizations such as DREAMers Moms took a different approach to influence public policy. To provide legal services, they hired attorneys and then used it as a training opportunity so that members could then provide that service to others. The attorney also,
Teaches us how to fill out paperwork, how to take the digital sheets, how to ask for records. So, for us it is like a training that we are doing so that fellow deportees don’t pay $500 for a lawyer because they ask for records (DREAMers Moms director, personal communication, July 25, 2016).
Providing this service is consistent with the idea of generating public value, which legitimizes the presence of deportees in Mexico.
The MSNGO Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro is a collaborative effort between a U.S.- based church and a sister church in Tijuana. Each Sunday, these two groups gathered to hold a church service/vigil in Friendship Park at the U.S.-Mexico border. This weekly service is a way for deported family members to connect with their loved ones while providing the MSNGO an outlet for their advocacy. In being present at the border each week, the MSNGO directors said they “continue to be a presence for border patrol, to show that the space is necessary. To show that the space is demanded to be open” (Ministerios Fronterizos Iglesia del Faro director, personal communication, July 25, 2016).
Regardless of their religious affiliation, numerous directors spoke of how their MSNGO contributed to public value through their expression of values and commitment to their faith. In the words of both the directors of Desayunador Salesiano “Padre Chava” and the men’s Salvation Army, they stated that the organizations were able to be the hands and feet of God. Additionally, the directors of La Roca del Alfarero, Roca de Salvación, and DREAMer Moms spoke of hope in what is possible for the lives of deportees in Tijuana and expressed their values related to hope and companionship.
Not all the directors expressed how their MSNGO contributed to public value in terms of community building. However, there were those that did spoke about connections between organizations. For instance, if they do not provide the required service, such connections may link deportees to other organizations (Casa del Migrante) or broader communities in which the MSNGO is located (Juventud 2000). DREAMer Moms was most vocal about their efforts at community building by stating,
To schools, churches, to talk to more civil associations and explain that you have to receive the deportee with kindness, because in fact we already come suffering, because we are separated from our families, because our future and what we had, what we worked so many years for is lost, and we reach our own country, and feel rejected by our own countrymen. We are going to schools, to high schools, where we are giving talks explaining why we are here, why we went, because many people think that we abandoned or betrayed our country, and after we’ve already been tossed, and we want to insert ourselves into society (DREAMer Moms’ director, personal communication, July 25, 2016).
Finally, the MSNGOs also discussed their contributions to public value in terms of citizen engagement. For many of the MSNGOs, citizen engagement took the form of advertising or social media campaigns to facilitate public education about the needs and hardships of deportees. DREAMer Moms are active on many media platforms, including radio and social media. Other groups use the internet to provide awareness. For example, the director of La Roca del Alfarero said,
Well, we can say that we try to —we use the internet to try, not so much publicity, but rather make people, people who do not know the situation— people who live here in Tijuana who don’t know what the situation experienced by the deportee. Or the person who sometimes doesn’t have a living, a support. Then we try to use the internet for that end, to see what they are doing here in Tijuana. And there’s a lot of need but little desire of people to help or work for it (La Roca del Alfarero director, personal communication, July 26, 2016).
DISCUSSION
In the past decade, U.S. immigration enforcement and policies have become more restrictive, and deportations of Mexican immigrants with a long U.S. duration of residence have risen dramatically (Gonzalez-Barrera & Krogstad, 2014). Consequently, deportation is shaping the Mexican border city of Tijuana, a primary repatriation portal (Masferrer & Roberts, 2012). Such border cities are confronted with the challenge of absorbing deportees, albeit sometimes only temporarily. To our knowledge, there is scant scholarly research on the role of nonprofits contributing to public value, particularly in Mexico. Therefore, we contribute to the literature examining MSNGOs in Tijuana, Mexico. Our analysis suggests they contribute to public value organizations by providing services, innovating their service delivery, advocating for the human rights and presence of deportees, expressing their faith values, building community, and fostering citizen engagement.
While many of the organizations interviewed offer an array of services, assisting with the necessities of housing and food was central to their mission. Directing deportees to access identification documents is imperative towards legitimizing their presence in Mexico. After deportees’ basic needs were satisfied, the MSNGOs could turn towards facilitating integration to a life many deportees did not want or expect. We found evidence to suggest that while MSNGOs respond to deportees’ needs, they are also working to reconstruct meaning, advance, and advocate for broader changes and awareness. The MSNGOs also focused on raising awareness about the deportee population and their right to access services. Likewise, nonprofits in the United States legitimize the deservingness of Hispanic immigrants and their “ability to claim rights and benefits in the local arena” (Gast & Okamoto, 2016, p. 2). Arguably, what underlies this dimension is a desire on behalf of the MSNGOs to validate the presence of deportees, acknowledge the humanity and desperation, and harness their potential, beyond the stereotypes, as productive individuals who can integrate in Mexican society.
While this paper provides a foundation for future studies of organization and the dynamics of U.S.-Mexico border cities receiving deportees, there are several limitations. First, the pilot nature of the data collection limited both the scope of questions asked to MSNGO directors and the number of organizations included in the study. Nevertheless, we made great efforts to interview both large and established NGOs as well as smaller and newer NGOs, as evident by Table 2.
Second, the data is limited to MSNGOs and included only one quasi-governmental organization. Future data collections could incorporate directors of the Mexican Government’s official programs. By including government agencies and officials in the data collection, researchers could then ask whether the government-level response in Tijuana is comparable to other border cities receiving deportees. Researchers could ask whether a weak government-level response is a way in which the Mexican Government “offloads insoluble problems (e.g., the alleviation of poverty) that would otherwise threaten its legitimacy” (DiMaggio & Anheier, 1990, p. 152) onto MSNGOs. Thus, the Mexican Government may use MSNGOs as safety valves for deportees and border communities who can adequately address needs without governmental assistance or financing. On the other hand, the Mexican Government may lack the resources or capacity to support the MSNGOs or their deportee initiatives. Because of shifting the responsibility of aiding deportees onto MSNGOs, the Mexican Government may unintentionally undermine its authority. As DiMaggio and Anheier (1990) suggest, (over)-reliance on NGOs may indicate that the government lacks legitimacy and may allow for NGOs to compete with the government.
Third, while Tijuana may be like other repatriation point-border cities, it may differ in unknowable ways. As a historical city of internal and circular migrants, there is greater awareness of the deportee population and its needs, thus creating an environment that encourages the growth of MSNGOs. Moreover, local, state, and/or federal governments may be operating differently in Tijuana in comparison to other repatriation border cities like Laredo. Future research should include other border cities and a broader range of non-governmental, civic, and public organizations.
The data collected from MSNGO directors highlights the immense needs and challenges of serving deportees in Tijuana and the tremendous effort MSNGOs are making on this front. Though it was beyond the scope of this pilot collection to survey deportees directly. Infrequently investigated, studies demonstrate that deportees’ lack of integration is associated with high-risk behaviors, homelessness, common mental disorders (CMDs), and poorer self-rated physical health (Bojorquez et al., 2015; Fernández-Niño, Ramírez-Valdés, Cerecero-Garcia, & Bojorquez- Chapela, 2014; Horyniak, Pinedo, Burgos, & Ojeda, 2016; Ojeda et al., 2011; Velasco et al., 2013; Wheatley, 2011). Whether a cause or consequence of the difficulties of adjusting to the country of origin, the psychological, physical, and social implications for deportees are clear. While MSNGOs aim to promote well-being and integration, further research could inform the specific needs and support structures that may help deportees.
Deportees who were, and remain, embedded in the United States through family and friends may intend to re-migrate and see their time in Tijuana and Mexico more generally as temporary (Hagan, Eschbach, & Rodriguez, 2008; Velasco et al., 2013). This may have implications such as the types of support and resources deportees need and seek out or how willing or able deportees are to re-integrate in Mexico and their needs. Focusing on the organizational level, this study demonstrates the needs and vulnerabilities deportees face in Mexico as well as the role of nongovernmental organizations. Additional studies are needed to investigate how changes in migration patterns and immigration policies transform border communities and the interactions between the Mexican Government and Mexican civil society.