In the first six months of 2023, 142,469 Salvadorans requested asylum worldwide; The United States received 80% of the applications. The figure almost equals the 148,000 requests that there were in all of 2022, according to the recent report “Diagnosis on characteristics and causes of Salvadoran migration”, from the Salvadoran association “Tutela Legal María Julia Hernández”.
Before 2015, applications were around 30,000. But it was from that year on that the phenomenon began to increase rapidly.
“The number of people of Salvadoran origin with refugee status did not altogether exceed 30,000 people before 2015. Afterwards, the records began to see an increase with few noticeable variations in this upward trend,” the report states.
El Salvador lived the most violent year in its history in 2015, when gangs murdered 6,657 people, raising the crime rate to 104 per 100,000 inhabitants. The cause was breakdown of a negotiation between the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, and the government of former President Mauricio Funes, nationalized Nicaraguan by Daniel Ortega.
Although the homicide rate began to decrease progressively since 2016, the number of refugee requests has not stopped increasing since then. They are even increasing now that El Salvador closed 2023 as the “safest” year of its modern history due to an exceptional regime implemented in March 2022, and which has lowered the homicide rate to 2.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Despite the historic improvement in public security, the number of Salvadorans in need of protection and humanitarian aid does not decrease. One of the causes, according to the author of the report, Celia Medrano, may be related to economics.
“The majority of people migrate to another country due to the fact that they have difficult economic situations in the country (El Salvador), and throughout these five years this phenomenon continues to increase,” he said during the presentation of the research.
Latest opinion poll published by the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA) in January 2024 revealed that seven out of ten Salvadorans consider the economy to be the main social problem that El Salvador currently faces.
The Fundaungo think tank, based in San Salvador, also revealed the same finding in 2023: 62.2% of Salvadorans consider the economy is the main problemfollowed by 4.4% that highlights crime.
With a minimum wage of around $365 per month and a basic basket of more than $256 by 2024, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is trying to reverse the economic crisis by attracting foreign investment.
His economic policies have reportedly focused on improving the investment climate for foreigners, for example by eliminating tariffs on foreign capital.
Although at a slow pace, Bukele said that El Salvador is on the path to having “reverse migration”, that is, instead of more Salvadorans leaving, those who are outside want to return, or foreigners invest.
The migration numbers, however, remain similar to those of previous years: in February 2024, 4,638 Salvadorans were detained by the US Border Patrol. A number similar to those detained in 2023, which were 4,774.
Income from family remittances to El Salvador reached a historic figure in 2023, with 8,181 million dollars. The United States being the main country of origin of remittances. This represents a growth of 4.6% compared to 2022.
The report adds that at least 24.8% of Salvadorans are residing abroad. That is, about 2.5 million.
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