Central America Resource Center

The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) is a community-based organization that seeks to foster the comprehensive development of the Latino community in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. CARECEN was founded in 1981 to protect the rights of refugees arriving from conflict in Central America and to help ease their transition by providing legal services. CARECEN provides direct services in immigration, housing and citizenship while also promoting empowerment, civil rights advocacy and civic training for Latinos.

History and Mission

Established in 1981 and incorporated in 1982, the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), originally named the Central American Refugee Center, was founded to protect the rights of refugees from Central America's wars and provide direct legal services that would ease their transition to their new home.

During the 1980s and 1990s, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala suffered from civil wars, while Honduras suffered more than a decade of civil strife in the form of a dirty war.[1] This period also saw mass migration from Central America to neighboring countries, Mexico and the United States. Prior to 1980, the United States limited its recognition of refugees and asylees to those fleeing from communist governments, while the 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees more generally accepted the definition of refugees and asylees as those fleeing their country from political oppression. The Refugee Act of 1980, signed into law by Jimmy Carter, established the definitions of asylum and refugee status in line with those of the United Nations. However, the United States was still in the midst of the Cold War, which strongly influenced public recognition of civil war and political oppression around the world. For example, 98% of Salvadoran requests for asylum were denied, while approximately the same percentage of Nicaraguans who claimed to be fleeing from a far leftist government was granted political asylum.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ferris, Elizabeth G., The Central American Refugees, Praeger, 1987, 159 pages

External links