In a world dominated by heated immigration debates, we recently witnessed a success story in Central America that demonstrates how a thoughtful migration policy can help both migrants and host nations. Bohanon and Horowitz recently visited Belize, where we explored and developed relationships between Ball State and the Central Bank of Belize and other economic agencies in the country. It was a very productive trip that will benefit all parties and enhance research and learning opportunities for our Ball State students.
Belize, formerly British Honduras, is a small country in Central America that gained independence in 1981. Its population is currently estimated to be 440,000, and it is 8,867 square miles. That’s about half the population of Marion County in an area twenty times its size.
Our hosts took us to Spanish Lookout, Belize. We were back home again in Indiana: farmland with rows of corn punctuated by grain silos. In the late 1950s, a group of Mennonite farmers in Mexico were concerned that the Mexican government would no longer guarantee their religious liberty and cultural independence. As pacifists, their exemption from military service in Mexico was under threat. Meanwhile the colonial government in British Honduras were looking to enhance the country’s agriculture production capacity before the colony was granted independence. Mennonites were seeking a new home, and as productive farmers were well-suited to meet the British goal.
The Mennonites moved in and had a hard time at first. But they harvested and sold timber and transformed the jungle into fertile farmland. Today they are thriving. They produce most of the poultry and dairy products consumed in Belize. They export large quantities of corn and beans to other Caribbean nations.
The arrangement showcases what Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom called polycentrism: a system of governance where multiple administrative levels provide various public services tailored to local needs and conditions. Under the constitutional arrangement with the national government, the Mennonites maintain their own roads and run their own schools through an internal system of taxation. They pay taxes to the Belizean government. The constitutional arrangement protects their religious liberty, including exemption from military service.
The story of the Mennonites in Belize is a story of how Belize developed a productive agricultural sector and the Mennonites found sanctuary to practice their faith and way of life. The relationship, built on mutual respect and clear expectations, created prosperity that neither party could have achieved independently.