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Since 1980, approximately 2 million Salvadorans have become residents of foreign countries, principally the United States. While the 2000 U.S. Census recorded California’s Salvadoran population at about 273,000, the University of Albany’s Mumford Institute, using other survey methods, found it closer to 500,000. Scholars and community leaders say persistent waves of immigration since 2000 may have significantly increased that figure. In modern development terms, these immigrants are referred to as the Diaspora, defined by Peggy Levitt in her 2001 Global Networks article “Transnational Migration: Taking Stock and Future Directions, as “individuals who have been exiled or displaced to nation states by a variety of economic, political, and social forces.”
The displacement of many Salvadorans has been attributed to the armed conflict lasting from 1980 to 1992, but Salvadoran immigration began before the war and continues to this day. The U.S.-based Salvadoran immigrant network represents all levels of Salvadoran and U.S. society, including elected officials ― for example, Ana Sol Gutierrez and Victor Ramirez Maryland Assembly members, and Walter Tejada, Arlington County (Va.) Board Member. Pre-war U.S. residence is common to the most successful Salvadoran immigrants, while many post-war arrivals are still trying to gain a foothold. The core of the Salvadoran Diaspora network, the community organizers and volunteers, however, arrived in the U.S. during the war with a common desire to change conditions for themselves and for those they left behind. Some work here as teachers, lawyers, doctors, civil rights, community and labor organizers and entrepreneurs; most are the blue-collar workers who do the grunt work that allows cities like Los Angeles to run smoothly. Driven by family obligations, interest in cultural preservation, a philanthropic spirit and nostalgia, many, even those struggling to survive, maintain an active connection with home. In economic terms, this translates into more than $3 billion in remittances to El Salvador almost every year, a contribution whose sheer volume drives El Salvador’s economy and development.
Reacting to the HTAs’ success with the mayors, in February 2002 the Salvadoran government, through the Office of the Vice President and the Social Investment for Local Development Fund (FISDL), created a framework for cooperation with citizens abroad. The idea was to facilitate selected social development projects with matching funds. El Rescate and HTA’s responded immediately by inviting (as a petition by the Salvadoran Ambassador in the United States Mr. Rene Leon) Vice President Carlos Quintanilla and Miguel Siman, FISDL’s president, to El Rescate’s Los Angeles office, where the government’s delegation officially presented the program’s vision and objectives to leaders of 18 Salvadoran hometown associations and announced the opportunity to compete for $114,000 in the pilot program.
The California HTAs received $51,000 from the government and raised $24,999 in matching contributions for several local development projects in the communities of origin.
Since that initial bid for government funds in March 2002, three more solicitations for bids have generated $3,704,611 in direct matching funds for investment in development projects involving Salvadoran associations in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Houston. Of this amount, the associations have contributed $825,869, the municipal governments $931,587 and the FISDL $1,905,955.00. The Salvadoran government finances its program with funds from an Inter-American Development Bank loan — not from the national treasury into which pour taxes generated by family remittances and services in El Salvador that emigrants use.
Currently, El Rescate, hometown associations, the counterpart organizations in El Salvador, FUCAD and the United Nation’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are working together to promote social and productive projects. The participating Southern California HTAs represent 11 Salvadoran towns: Cacaopera, Suchitoto, San Isidro, Cojutepeque, La Laguna, Nueva Concepcion, Sesori, Chalchuapa, Cara Sucia, Ilobasco and Juayua. The relationship forged with IFAD demonstrates the potential of Salvadoran HTAs to contribute to international and transnational development policies. In May 2002, Salvadoran HTA leaders from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and New York, along with representatives of COMUNIDADES and El Rescate, discussed possible cooperation on projects promoted by IFAD. Some 35 associations from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Houston participated in follow-up workshops organized in California by El Rescate and IFAD with the cooperation of hometowns associations from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Houston and FUCAD. The resulting agreements have already been applied in communities in the Salvadoran departments of San Vicente and Morazán.
Past Reports:
• El Rescate and LA Water and Power Community Credit Union Project
• El Rescate and the Rockefeller Foundation Community Remittance Productive Project Grant
• Desarrollo de Base: Revista de la Fundacion Interamericana
• Salvadorian Hometown Associations and IFAD Project
• IDA program Report
EL RESCATE’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Throughout these unprecedented times, El Rescate has remained steadfast in its mission to meet the needs of Los Angeles’ Latino immigrant population.
In this way, considering the cruciality of the services we provide, El Rescate only closed its doors for a single day after the Stay At Home order was announced in early March. Since then, El Rescate adjusted to the crisis by modifying its procedures according to the health and safety measures recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) while continuing to provide essential services to the community.
Services rendered 2020
The first of these modifications was changing how we host our weekly “Charlas,” in which our staff would normally give a presentation on the most current changes to immigration law, and provide an opportunity for attendees to receive a short legal consultation. As a direct result of social distancing guidelines, however, we are no longer able to host this event (which regularly draws the attendance of fifteen persons a week) or even take the walk-ins that would normally come by our offices if they were unable to attend the “Charlas.” In light of this reality, El Rescate began to accept ten legal consultation appointments a week. As a result of the pandemic, however, these ten appointments are spread out among three days of our now four-day workweek; a stark contrast to our previous six-day workweek. This reduced schedule also meant that we also had to cancel our citizenship classes on Saturdays which roughly 20+ people attended weekly. This modified schedule, therefore, while meant to reduce the exposure of our employees to the virus, has had significant financial consequences with regards to how many staff we can afford to employ, as well as the income of those who remain.
TRANSNATIONAL WORK
Additionally, however, as El Rescate’s work continues here in Los Angeles, our partner organization in El Salvador, The Salvadoran Migrant Institute (INSAMI), has remained committed to their mission of integrating the voice and perspective of migrants, both within and outside of El Salvador, into the process of migration policy creation. INSAMI, being an initiative of the Salvadoran Diaspora leadership, is formed by anthropologists, economists, sociologists, analysts, jurists, psychologists, scientists, entrepreneurs and community leaders for the purpose of advocating for the needs and interests of the Salvadoran migrant population abroad.
In this way, much like El Rescate, the nature of INSAMI’s work means that the services they provide are essential to the community they serve. These services include: medical consults, psychological care, COVID-related assistance, business management training, political incidence, and project research. With El Rescate’s support, INSAMI has succeeded in establishing a comprehensive care clinic in which Salvadoran migrants may gain access to a variety of resources and opportunities meant to foster this community in particular’s laboral and social participation. Since the beginning of the pandemic, INSAMI has demonstrated great resilience in the face of such unprecedented circumstances, immediately creating new ways to reach the deported population like installing a call center in which clients’ personal information is reported in a virtual format. This innovation was met with great success as INSAMI reports that in six months this center was used by 871 people, 341 of which called directly, and 530 of which used the Whatsapp messaging feature.
Additionally, with the help of El Rescate’s donations, INSAMI has been able to continue the consistent delivery of medicine to beneficiaries, as well as providing psychological support via telephone or video conferences as increased tension over the pandemic’s economic impact continues to fuel the growing number of people in need of such services.
In this way, of the 429 deportees who have benefited from INSAMI’s services since the pandemic began, we must also consider that a majority of these individuals have children at home who are, albeit indirectly, also greatly dependent on INSAMI’s work. It is therefore through El Rescate’s partnership with The Salvadoran Migrant Institute that we are able to support not only the betterment of Salvadoran migrants living in our home community of Los Angeles, but also of the countless individuals residing both within and outside of their home country of El Salvador in need of assistance. We are incredibly proud to contribute to the purposes of such an incredible organization and it is our hope that whether it be via direct or indirect financial assistance, medical donations, public policy guidance, or networking support, that we can continue to fight for a better future for the people of El Salvador, at home and abroad.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, in times of such intense uncertainty, now more than ever it is of the utmost importance that the Latino immigrant community secure their status and participate in the civil and political life of the country they call home.