A stagnant economy, natural disasters, and high levels of various forms of violence—in part the result of U.S. involvement in the region and U.S. immigration policies of the past three decades, as well as the Salvadoran government’s ongoing failure to address systemic social problems—have pushed growing numbers of people to leave over the past two decades.
Over the past century, Salvadorans have moved across the world, though today most by far live in the United States. The nearly 1.4 million immigrants from El Salvador, representing one-fifth of its population, account for the second-largest Latin American group in the United States, after Mexicans. Sharing deep economic, military, and political ties, the United States and El Salvador have become entwined by a migration context that connects communities in both countries.
The precarious legal status of many Salvadoran migrants has left them particularly susceptible to the effects of changes in U.S. and regional immigration policy. Along with immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala, Salvadorans have been highly represented among families and unaccompanied minors arriving at the Southwest border in recent years, and have faced ramped-up enforcement there and in Mexico. Further, in 2018 the Trump administration announced it would not extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans, throwing some 195,000 beneficiaries into limbo as they are now expected to leave the country by September 2019—or risk deportation.
This article traces the history of Salvadoran immigration and emigration, profiles the population of Salvadoran immigrants in the United States—with a focus on their treatment under U.S. immigration policies—and examines emerging and ongoing policy issues affecting these migrants and their families.
Struggles for Land and Movement of People
El Salvador’s status today as a major origin country of migrants and asylum seekers can be traced back to decades of deep political and socioeconomic inequities, which have long made life difficult for most Salvadorans.
After El Salvador gained independence from Spain in 1821, its new leaders sought to develop the country economically, viewing international markets as the key to success. Migration to the country during and immediately after the colonial period was composed mainly of Spaniards and to a lesser degree other Europeans, with a smaller influx of Blacks via the Caribbean coasts of neighboring countries. By 1860, El Salvador had become a major coffee exporter. But coffee production came with major land redistribution, benefiting the elites of the time. Reliance on one major export would also make the country’s economy vulnerable to even minor fluctuations in the global coffee market.
Between 1880 and 1890, the government privatized communal lands—where many indigenous Salvadorans lived—to make coffee production more efficient and lucrative. Although communities organized against land privatization, the government, favoring wealthy European immigrants and local ladino (or mestizo) families who were developing the country, proceeded to turn these lands into coffee plantations. A few local elites held a monopoly on coffee exports, and displaced peasants, primarily of indigenous origin, became the labor force.
By the late 1920s, coffee accounted for more than 90 percent of El Salvador’s export revenue, and rising prices brought prosperity. But prices plummeted during the Great Depression, and financial turmoil hit the country. Wages fell and peasants, who had already lost their land to privatization, became unemployed. Small landholders could not make payments on loans and lost their plots, facilitating even more concentration of land in the hands of a few.
Just months after the election of President Arturo Araujo in 1931, a military coup d’état brought General Maximiliano Hernández MartĂnez to power. By 1932 peasants and students had organized to demand political freedom, economic reforms, and land redistribution. In response, the government ordered the killing of thousands of Salvadorans, mainly indigenous peasants. This event, known as La Matanza, contributed to the consolidation of power in the hands of the economic elite, and established military authority in the country for decades to come.
Beginnings of Migration
The military-economic elite alliance was solidly antireform, opposed to even minor economic or political reforms—a position it would maintain for decades. Wages were low and working conditions harsh, motivating tens of thousands of Salvadorans to emigrate.
An estimated 25,000 Salvadorans migrated to Honduras in the 1930s, primarily to work in banana plantations. This number rose as access to land and decent wages continued to shrink in El Salvador; in the 1940s there were close to 40,000 Salvadorans living in Honduras and by 1969 there were about 350,000. Salvadorans also left to work on the Panama Canal and in U.S. shipyards during World War II, particularly in San Francisco. In addition, agricultural workers moved internally to work on coffee plantations. These movements contributed to a reshaping of Salvadoran families, as many women stayed home and filled dual roles of breadwinner and caretaker while men moved to other parts of the country and abroad.
