Faces of Costa Rica

It's not an easy life. They encounter prejudice, often adverse labor conditions and general distrust from Costa Ricans.

Still, approximately 300,000 to 400,000 Nicaraguans illegally cross the mountains between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in search of a better future. Some find it, some just get by, and some do not earn enough to pay for the basics.

These illegal Nicaraguan immigrants often work as farm laborers. They harvest coffee, bananas, and sugarcane under the hot Costa Rican sun, working long hours and making little. They walk shoeless in the mud, digging for clams, which sell about $6 per hundred. They grow and sell produce, often forced to pay for its transport. They frequently work at below minimum wage and many do not have steady employment.

Some prefer to live in parts of Costa Rica that are closer to Nicaragua, others migrate to Costa Rica's capital, San José.

"When I see areas of San José in which the majority of residents are Nicaraguans," commented Costa Rican economist José Manuel Arias, "I ask myself how these people lived in Nicaragua, if they prefer to live in Costa Rica under such poor conditions."

According to studies at done at the University of Costa Rica, 30 percent of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica live in extreme poverty. Legal and illegal Costa Ricans make of 75 percent of the foreign population in Costa Rica.

Costa Ricans claim Nicaraguans take away jobs because they are willing to work for less money, and that their presence taxes the healthcare and education systems.

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