Tijuana, May 2. On the field of the "Embajadores de Jesús" school, the children are ready for the festival, but first, they must pay tribute to the flag and sing the National Anthem . Behind the "patriotic banner," the flags of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala also wave; the Mexican National Anthem is sung , and some verses of the anthems of Central American countries can be heard. It is a ceremony celebrating the Day of the Migrant Child. Some have just crossed, sometimes on foot, more than one country.
Although the school—recently opened next to the shelter of the same name—is under the supervision of the National Council for Educational Development (Conafe) and serves 656 preschool, primary, and secondary school students, all displaced—60 percent of whom are from other states in the country, primarily Michoacán—it is a prime example of what is happening on this border.
In Baja California's school system, there are 44,630 foreign children from 73 countries . Preschoolers are 35 years old; state elementary schools accommodate children of 73 years old; and secondary schools accept children from 57 nationalities. Venezuelans, Cubans, Chinese, Ukrainians, Haitians, Chileans, Brazilians, Filipinos, Russians, and Americans, the latter being the majority. The migrant children registered in the school system are concentrated in Tijuana; 26,956.
From Little Haiti to City of God
Statistics show a significant number of students with birth certificates in Chile and Brazil, children of Haitian couples, born during the exodus through those countries. The first caravan of Haitians to arrive in Baja California in 2018 came from the Southern Cone, driven by the Brazilian economic crisis and attracted by U.S. legislation that offered them easier entry after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country .
