Living in Guatemala

In Guatemala the tax authorities take little, so a paycheck arrives nearly whole. Even so, middling pay against middling costs leaves things close to even, with not much room to build anything. The job market is the steeper climb. There is no broad path in for a newcomer, local connections do most of the hiring, and English helps only in pockets, so patience and some Spanish go a long way.

Guatemala's diaspora is overwhelmingly bound for one place: of its 1.5M emigrants, 1.3M live in the United States, leaving Mexico and Belize far behind. That diaspora has grown 37% over the past decade. Immigration into Guatemala is minimal by comparison — about 90.2K foreign-born residents in a country of 18.4M.