Jordan: Dire economic prospects force youth to chase American dream, despite risks
The village of Kufr Asad in Jordan’s north feels empty.
Nearly 1,000 young men have left it over the past year, according to residents.
Desperate for better lives, they paid thousands of dollars to make the arduous journey across the globe to the United States.
Among them is Ihab, who is referred to only by his first name to protect his identity, like the other migrants Middle East Eye interviewed for this story.
“Any place is more beautiful than Jordan,” he told MEE via WhatsApp, speaking from the US.
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“This is because of the poor management and corruption that left no room for those with creativity.”
Kufr Asad in the Irbid Governorate, home to around 15,000 people as of 2019, is not the only village witnessing this new phenomenon.
Many other villages across northern Jordan - in Ajloun, Jerash Irbid, the north Jordan Valley - have also become devoid of young people.
Villages such as Qameem, Habka, Sama, Anjara and Kafranja have seen hundreds of cases of irregular migration to the US through brokers active in Jordan.
Most flee stifling economic conditions, where more and more new graduates struggle to find jobs.
'For years, we have been living on false promises'
- Ihab, Jordanian migrant in the US
Ihab, who graduated from Yarmouk University with a degree in accounting, looked for jobs in his field for years but to no avail.
He tried to take up trading, but that also proved a difficult job, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, he told MEE.
Nepotism, favouritism and corruption have infested the country, he said, leaving him with no option but to seek a new life abroad.
“For years, we have been living on false promises,” he told MEE.
Late last year, he met someone who told him about migration to the US through a complicated network of smugglers.
Despite all the risks involved, it was an easy decision to make.
“I didn’t think twice,” he said.
“I was exposed to death many times, but to die a wayfarer would be a relief from worries of life in Jordan.”
Smuggling route
The journey from Kufr Asad to the United States starts with local brokers, who link Jordanians with smugglers in Central America.
From there, they are taken to Mexico before finally crossing the border to their final destination, in a journey that takes up to a month.
Brokers and human traffickers are openly active on Jordanian Facebook groups, attracting young people from all over the Arab-speaking world.
One of those smugglers, Abu Ahmed, explained the process to MEE, speaking using a pseudonym for his safety.
“Clients are usually acquired through advertisements in Facebook groups and more often on Telegram, which is considered safer,” he said.
The bulk of the cost, which reaches between $12,000 to $15,000 in total, is paid to the original broker in Mexico, he added, while human traffickers at each stage of the journey are paid around $500 each.
Ayman, from Kufr Asad, began his journey in Nicaragua’s capital Managua, which grants Jordanians a visa on arrival at the airport.
The 34-year-old first paid $400 to smugglers in Managua, who took him on a bus through Honduras to the Guatemalan border with Mexico, his brother Maher told MEE.
Along with a group of other migrants, and after paying an additional $400, they then walked through the forests, accompanied by armed men, towards the Mexican city of Tapachula. From there they travelled to Cancun and finally Tijuana, on the border with America’s San Diego.
“Here, each migrant pays approximately $5,000 to cross into America and surrender themselves to the American border guards,” Maher explained.
Ayman finally made it safely to the US and was granted asylum.
He now works at a supermarket owned by a relative in Texas, making $20 an hour in addition to free housing provided by his job.
Back in Jordan, he made less than $15 a day working as a taxi driver in Irbid, Maher said.
Economic challenges
Though the World Bank assesses that Jordan's economic trajectory “continues to showcase resilience”, the country has struggled with a high unemployment rate and “sluggish” economic growth.
The unemployment rate reached 21.4 percent during the first quarter of 2024, remaining well below the pre-Covid crisis average of 15.1 percent according to the World Bank.
Unemployment affects nearly half of Jordan’s youth, where nearly 63 percent of the population is under the age of 30.
According to the Jordanian Centre for Labor Rights "Workers' House", 48 percent of people working 40 to 60 hours per week receive wages ranging from $280 to $422 per month, and about 8.3 percent of workers receive wages less than $280 per month.
Qassim al-Hamouri, a professor of economics at Yarmouk University in Irbid, told MEE the cause of the unemployment crisis is due to “cumulative mismanagement of economic resources”.
“For many years, there has been no economic growth that creates job opportunities to absorb young people, in addition to the closure of many investments,” al-Hamouri explained.
“This has caused the economy to shrink and unemployment to increase."
Al-Hamouri added this has led many young people to lose hope in Jordan due to a lack of “economic security”.
“Some of those who migrated sold what they owned or borrowed money to raise funds for their journey.
"If we measure the percentage of Jordanian migrants based on the population, we find that the number exceeds the countries that have experienced wars.”
Around 42 percent of Jordanians think about migration, according to a new poll published earlier this month by the Arab Barometer, making them the second-highest Arab nation wishing to seek life abroad.
'I will never go back to Jordan'
The spike in irregular migration from Jordan has not gone unnoticed by local authorities.
Not least since some migrants video blog their journeys and post them online, encouraging more people to follow in their footsteps.
“Look, this is the American border,” said a man in a video posted on Instagram, as he walked with a group of people through the forest.
“This is our entry into America, say hi to the camera guys,” he added.
MEE has seen several similar videos but couldn't independently verify them.
من هنا الى نهاية هذه السنة، اذا بقيت هجرة الشباب الأردنيين إلى الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية عبر المكسيك بهذه الوتيرة، ستكون من أكثر المراحل آلماً في تاريخ هذا الوطن الحبيب 💔#الأردن pic.twitter.com/COni5e1N01
— General Inspector (@GeneralInspect3) June 15, 2024
Video showing a group of people describing themselves in Arabic as Jordanians and saying they have arrived in the United States
However, with their spread on social media, Jordanian authorities began to take action.
In June, a person in Irbid was detained for 15 days on charges of human trafficking and was accused of facilitating the travel of several people abroad.
Another person, who owns a tourism services office, was barred from travelling for three months extendable to a year, after being accused of similar charges.
Outlining the government’s track record in tackling unemployment, Minister of Government Communications Muhannad Mubaidin said earlier this month that 95,342 jobs were created in 2023, in addition to 89,500 in 2022.
The increase of 2,216 opportunities in the second half of 2023 was due to the “clear procedures carried out by the government”, he said.
“Most of the new job opportunities are for Jordanians in the age group from 20 to 29 years, at a rate of 89 percent,” he added.
'My message to my mother and father from America... I'm blocking your calls and I will never go back to Jordan'
- Mohammad Enab, Jordanian migrant in the US
However, former Deputy Prime Minister Mamdouh al-Abadi argues that Jordan remains in an “economic predicament” and that a new approach is needed to resolve longstanding issues.
“[The solution] is to change the economic approach that has been prevalent for 20 years,” al-Abadi told MEE.
“We must change the approach. The solution lies in political reform first, putting the right people in the right places, and learning from experiences of countries that have been able to rise economically.”
Regardless of where the solution lies, those who already made it to the US don’t want to look back.
Video after video continuse to pop up on Jordanian social media, with a similar message.
“This is my message to my mother and father from America,” said Mohammad Ennab, who recently arrived in America, in a sarcastic video.
“I'm blocking your calls and I will never go back to Jordan."
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