Extortion and Civic Engagement among Guatemalan Deportees

How does extortion experienced during the migration journey affect the civic engagement ofdeported migrants returned to their home country More broadly, how does extortion affect political participationLittle is known about either the political behavior of returnees or about how coercive economic shocks experiencedduring migration affect subsequent levels of political participation. More broadly, existing literature on howvictimization affects political participation is inconclusive, particularly when combined with existing workon economic insecurity. Studying deported migrants and the quasi-random experience of extortion helps address theendogeneity that often confounds these analyses. This approach isolates the impact of extortion on politicalaction from potentially confounding factors related to local security or corruption. Using a novel dataset concerningGuatemalan migrants returned to Guatemala by the U.S. government, this paper finds that extortion has a direct,positive relationship with multiple forms of civic action, and that, at least in this context, the mobilizing effectsof economic hardship outweigh the potentially demobilizing effects of fear of crime.