Essay for Credit?

Pregnant Nicaraguan Female Domestic Workers in Costa Rica

Diego Najarro Sedar

University for Peace

 Globalization has expanded our horizons not only in terms of trade and information, but also

in terms of human capital. The increased mobility of populations, have allowed women to join the

workforce internationally and in the process it has allowed them to become more independent, self-

reliant, and educated. As more developing countries begin to modernize and develop, the demand

for cheap workforce continues to expand, which in turn leads to South-South migration as can be

seen in the case of Nicaraguan female domestic workers arriving in Costa Rica for job opportuni-

ties.

In 2011 Costa Rica had the largest immigrant population in Latin America, with 9% of the

country’s population. Of these immigrants, Nicaraguans account for 70% of them, more than half of

which are females, and approximately half of these are illegal. Costa Rica has therefore become the

number one destination for Nicaraguan immigrants in the world. Most of the Nicaraguan women ar-

rive to Costa Rica hoping to flee crime, violence, and seeking better job opportunities in a country

that prides itself in creating a vast number of social services and amenities that most neighboring

countries do not possess, in particular its Universal Health Care System (OAS, 2014). This system,

also called “La Caja” boasts about its inclusive policies, yet the reality for pregnant Nicaraguan mi-

grant women is very different. In this essay I aim to explore this issue through the overarching

themes of how Nicaraguan migrant women’s identity is shaped due to policies that sell themselves

as “inclusive” but are rather exclusive in the experience migrants in Costa Rica

I will do this by providing historical context of Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica, as well

as an explanation of Costa Rica’s citizenship laws and its legislation on the Universal Health Care

System. Lastly, I will put forward some of the obstacles pregnant migrant workers face in their

country of destination with some examples focusing on what Nicaraguans face when trying to ac-

cess Costa Rica’s Universal Health Care System. These examples will be based on some scholarly

articles and firsthand experiences I have heard from working with Nicaraguan workers.

Historical Context of Nicaraguan Migration to Costa Rica

 Domestic work is a very common practice in Latin America. Both rich and lower income

members of society often have some sort of domestic workers in their house. Low income families

often have their neighbors as nannies for their kids while they, themselves, take care of richer fami-

lies’ homes. The origins of the importance of domestic work in Latin America can be traced back to

colonial origins, where a common practice was the servitude of indigenous populations. This was

soon followed by the women that migrated from the countryside to the city, and currently by the mi-

gration of women from neighboring countries (Lerussi, 2007)

From the end of the XIX century until the mid XX, the regional migration of Nicaraguans to

Costa Rica took place, as Costa Rica began to modernize and needed unskilled labor for railways,

agriculture, and so on. During this time, a majority of women migrated to the cities of Costa Rica to

become maids (Lerussi, 2007). In addition, Costa Rica became an ideal destination for Central

Americans who were fleeing civil war and unrest in their countries from the mid 20 th century all the

way until the 1990s. Costa Rica is unlike Central American countries in that, they had abolished its

army in 1948 which allowed the country to develop a strong democratic institution as well as a

strong welfare state (Lerussi, 2007). During the 1970s, with the repression of the Somosa regime,

until the 1990s, due to corruption and economic instability, migration of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica

increased substantially (Salinas, 2014). Families and many young single mothers migrated to Costa

Rica in search of a safer life and for employment, where the demand for unskilled Nicaraguan labor

accelerated in Costa Rica’s due to its growing demand in agriculture, domestic, and construction

work.

Lastly, during the 1980s Costa Rica became one of the first countries to implement Struc-

tural Adjustment Programs, which promoted labor dynamics characterized by the absence of social

security, decrease of wages, increase in prices for basic services and sometimes its privatization,

and the decrease of formal jobs. This directly impacted female migrants as it forced more of them to

occupy jobs in the informal sector as housemaids and nannies –required attributes of “feminine la-
bor” like patience, cleanliness, and submission (Lerussi, 2007). Nowadays, Costa Rica is the first

destination for Nicaraguan migrants in the world, followed by the United States.

Costa Rican Citizenship and “La Caja”

It was officially established in 1948 with the funds from the abolition of the army that same

year. But the government is not the only one that supports the health care system, instead it includes

groups and individuals for them to have a responsibility to uphold the social guarantees. Employers

and workers, along with the state, pay taxes and social insurance to fund the nation’s health care

coverage. In the national scale,14% of the wages paid are directed to the funding of health services.

Even employees who are self-employed have to pay for the social insurance. For Costa Ricans, this

shared allocation of national resources reflects a notion of collective responsibility for social health.

It is the most developed health care system in Central America, and it achieved drastic declines in

infant mortality and childhood morbidity by making universal and comprehensive public health care

a priority. (Goldade, 2011)

Costa Rican Legislation Concerning Nicaraguan Migrant Mothers:

Costa Rica prides itself on its longstanding commitment to universality, solidarity, and equality.

These commitments are transmitted in the legislation of the country with laws such as the Code of

Childhood and Adolescence, created in 1995 that states that universal health care coverage must be

granted to all children within the territory, including tourists. This ensures free health insurance to

all children born or residing in Costa Rica, regardless of their citizenship status or parent’s insur-

ance status until the age of 18 (Goldade, 2011). In addition, Costa Rica has a “jus solis” citizenship

right which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born within Costa Rican territory, additionally it

grants the mother of the child a residency card (Goldade, 2011). However, unlike the automatic citi -

zenship the child obtains, obtaining a residency card is a long and expensive process that hinders

migrant women from accessing this right.

 Obstacles of Working Migrant Mothers

Women’s increased mobility in the workforce is often seen as a sign of development that is en-

couraged by all sectors of society in an effort to improve the women’s and the population’s liveli-

hoods. Nevertheless, it is often the case that migrant women become a marginalized population in

their destination country. They suffer from discrimination, abuse, unequal systems of female op-

pression, and rightlessness. These obstacles faced by migrant female domestic workers are also very

present amongst Nicaraguan domestic workers in Costa Rica. Not only do they face discrimination,

rightlessness, and the burden of providing for their families but when it comes to pregnant

Nicaraguan domestic workers, they also face issues of morality or stratified reproduction, all of

which in turn affect their sense of belonging and identity within Nicaraguan and Costa Rican soci-

ety.

The Example of Pregnant Nicaraguan Female Domestic Workers in Costa Rica

Nicaraguan domestic workers immigrate to Costa Rica to find better job opportunities. Nev-

ertheless, they face a lot of prejudice and discrimination from Costa Ricans in different sectors of

society. Because of the emphasis health care services put on the care of pregnant women and new-

born children, as well as the Code of Childhood and Adolescence and Costa Rica’s jus solis citizen-

ship rights, any pregnant woman, regardless of her legal status in the country, is allowed access to

prenatal care in the public health care system, and upon the delivery of the baby, he /she becomes a

Costa Rican citizen by birth while the mother becomes a resident if she decides to follow the

lengthy process.

For this reason, Costa Rican’s perception of pregnant Nicaraguan domestic workers is that

they come to the country to have their children here, for them to take advantage of the health care

system, have their children become nationals, and have themselves become residents, without hav-

ing to pay taxes or contribute anything to the country. This belief that Nicaraguans are solely in

Costa Rica as “parasites” to abuse of the blind kindness of Costa Rica’s welfare system has made
them the scapegoat for the declining financial status of the health insurance system. Two different

surveys suggest that about 75% of Costa Ricans believe that Nicaraguan immigrants are putting the

social insurance of the country at risk. (Bonilla, 2007). Nevertheless, in reality it is the implementa-

tion of Structural Adjustment Programs that have hindered the “Caja”’s ability to provide efficient

and effective care to its population.

Despite the common belief that Nicaraguans are coming to have “anchor babies” to obtain

Costa Rican nationality, in reality, many of these women do not want to get the citizenship as it

feels like a betrayal to their Nicaraguan nationality. In addition, those who do want to obtain perma -

nent residency in Costa Rica and begin the process to become a citizen must go through a long, de-

manding, and costly process to do so. This is mainly due to the documents demanded, which in-

clude the mother’s Nicaraguan birth certificate and a government ID. Although some women might

have this, many others do not possess those documents on hand, and therefore have to go back to

Nicaragua in order to obtain them, making them waste money and time away from their jobs, which

some of them cannot afford to do (Goldade, 2011).

The challenging and lengthy legal process to obtain both permanent residency and citizen-

ship serve as an enforcement of rightlessness to many Nicaraguan migrant women in Costa Rica.

Although there are rights that allow these migrants a path to citizenship, it becomes so challenging,

time consuming, and costly, that it simply works as a filter to naturalize immigrants who have the

resources to do so, while leaving those who cannot afford it without these rights. For this reason, it

is often the case that many of the Nicaraguan migrant women give birth in Costa Rica so that their

children, instead of them, can obtain automatic citizenship and have a better life, with a better

health care system and a better education. By having Costa Rican children, the mother also benefits

because due to her baby’s Costa Rican nationality, it becomes impossible for her to be deported,

since she must take care of her child. In addition, many Nicaraguan migrant women use their chil-

dren’s Costa Rican birth certificate as a form of passport or identification. A Nicaraguan domestic

worker explained that when she travels within Costa Rica and police stop her to ask for her docu-
ments, she shows them her daughter and her Costa Rican birth certificate instead, and this is enough

for them (Goldade, 2011). Therefore, the child’s identity as a Costa Rican citizen intertwines with

his mother’s illegal status and therefore helps redefine his mother’s identity into one where she feels

like she has the right to belong in Costa Rica.

Although Nicaraguan domestic workers can sometimes experience a redefining of their

identity and therefore sense of belonging with the birth of their Costa Rican child, Costa Ricans of-

ten portray Nicaraguan mothers as immoral, “bad mothers”, and undeserving even after having their

baby. Health care providers often help as gatekeepers of Costa Rican identity and nationality, and as

a result they tend to define whether migrants are deserving or undeserving of medical care. Despite

the government’s emphasis on providing prenatal care for all women regardless of their legal status,

it is often the case that when Nicaraguan women arrive for prenatal care checkups in the local clin-

ics known as EBAIS, that they are turned down unless they have urgent concerns regarding their

pregnancy. According to nurses at one of these clinics, migrant women sometimes arrive at the

EBAIS and pretend something is wrong in order to get a prenatal checkup. In addition, when

Nicaraguan pregnant women are finally allowed to receive prenatal care, the health service

providers will shame them for not coming in sooner and putting their child at risk (Dos Santos,

2015). In addition to the lack of prenatal care, immediately after the child is born, the Nicaraguan

mother is completely forgotten, proving that although her illegal identity was only temporarily put

on hold because she shared a body with a legal Costa Rican citizen. Now that she no longer share a

body, the mother is once again identified as an illegal “alien” as she and her baby become two sepa-

rate individuals, one illegal and the other legal.

This dilemma between the portrayal of a Nicaraguan mother as careless and undeserving of

health services, while the child is seen as an innocent and deserving person shapes the identity and

sense of belonging of both the mother and the baby. In this case, there is both a sense of division

and unity between the unborn baby and the mother. While the mother is seen as the “other”, nurses

and doctors must take care of her because she is carrying one of “theirs”, a Costa Rican who is be-
ing carried by an undeserving mother. Nevertheless, once the mother and baby are separated, so is

their identity, allowing health care practitioners to discriminate between the “undeserving” mother

and the “deserving” baby (Dos Santos, 2015).

By identifying Nicaraguan migrant mothers as “undeserving” of Costa Rican citizenship and

rights, it gives way to the creation of policies that further exacerbate the divide between illegal and

legal citizens. Some of these policies can be seen in the different forms of stratified reproduction

promoted by health service providers as well as by the local population. Stratified reproduction is a

term by Shellee Colen that refers to policies in which certain groups are encouraged and supported

to reproduce while others are discouraged (Goldade, 2011). A way in which stratified reproduction

takes place amongst Nicaraguan migrant women is with the pressure nurses and doctors put on

them in order to get tubal ligation procedures.

A common misconception and stereotype promoted by the media and other sectors of soci-

eties compares the sexual activity of Nicaraguan and Costa Ricans. Costa Ricans are stereotyped as

having greater self-discipline and higher morality than Nicaraguans because they do not have as

many children as Nicaraguans (Goldade, 2011). As a result, health practitioners push pregnant

Nicaraguan migrant women to have a tubal ligation procedure in order to have less children and be

more like “Costa Ricans”, meaning more disciplined and moral.

This procedure is actively promoted by health practitioners because although it falls outside

the normal rules of the health care access, it is the only form of contraception provided free of

charge to women without insurance, but only if asked for immediately after delivery. By aiming this

free procedure at uninsured women who have just given birth, it becomes a clear tool to uphold

stratified reproduction based on who should be allowed to have children or not (Goldade, 2011). In

this case, Costa Rican citizens are advised against the procedure while the undocumented and unin-

sured Nicaraguan domestic workers are encouraged to go through with it. As explained by a hospi-

tal social worker: “We invest in the operation to save money in the future”, which implies that
through tubal ligations, there will be a reduction in undocumented migrant children and therefore

less expenses for the overtaxed health care system (Goldade, 2011).

Conclusion

Costa Rica is not a welfare magnet, Nicaraguan migrants do not over-use the CCSS, let

alone are the cause of their financial difficulties. The data denies almost all the myths about the

“nicas” in Costa Rica. But perceptions persist. In this, Costa Rica is anything but exceptional: Much

of the rise of the right in Europe and the past 4 years with Trump in the US is explained by similar

anti-immigrant sentiments. In Costa Rica too. With an electoral year on the horizon, already some

political parties are flirting with these feelings of unease in society, and emit messages that reflect

the chauvinism of well being.

If we are going to have a sincere and serious debate, it is important to take empirical evidence into

account. Moreover, we must discuss not only the “cost”, but also the contribution of migration to

our society. Gallo Pinto might be Tico, but in reality, without “nicas” there is no gallo pinto. Also

the rest of our meals: Coffee, fruits… sugar. If you thank God for your food, you must also thank a

migrant. Within the migrant community of domestic workers there is a multiplicity of vulnerabili-

ties and obstacles that must be addressed in order to make the treatment of Nicaraguan migrants re -

flect Costa Rica’s longstanding commitment to universality, solidarity, and equality.

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