El Salvador: Civil War, Natural Disasters, and Gang Violence Drive Migration
August 29, 2018
By Cecilia MenjÃvar and Andrea Gómez Cervantes
Migration from El Salvador is shaped by a history of civil unrest, external interventions, and deeply rooted social inequalities. Home to roughly 6.4 million people, the country is the smallest by territory in Central America yet the most densely populated. 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.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/el-salvador-civil-war-natural-disasters-and-gang-violence-drive-migration
