ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 explores interviews conducted with youth who desire to migrate or have experienced migrating, are settled in other countries, have opted to return, or have been forcibly returned. The chapter explores how regional policy and government response impact youth experiences. The findings indicate that Central American young people describe a seeming universal sentiment of being trapped within their political, economic, and safety circumstances. Youth expressed that they saw migration as the only possibility to make anything of their lives. Further, in exploring the experiences on the migratory path, the findings indicate that young people were further ostracized; participants spoke about the violence and dehumanization they experienced during their journey and the seeming way they were stripped of their personhood when they decided to leave their countries. Lastly, participants’ stories reiterate and expand the external and political impact of coloniality and the internalization of the colonized mind in their everyday lives.
