
NLU’s Lauren Heidbrink, Ph.D., explains the conditions facing young people in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Violence, gangs, poverty and a history of civil war impel children under age 18 to flee Central American nations and take their chances migrating to the U.S., NLU Assistant Professor Lauren Heidbrink, Ph.D., told a large audience on Wednesday.
Heidbrink, chair of NLU’s M.A. in Public Policy and Administration program, delivered her remarks at Loyola University of Chicago, where she had been invited to give the annual John M. Wozniak lecture.
Heidbrink has spent years researching unaccompanied child migration. She has interviewed child migrants and their families, conducted original research in migrants’ towns of origin in Guatemala and El Salvador, and briefed the U.S. Department of State to inform them of the causes and consequences of child migration. She touched on several key points in her talk. Continue reading »