The Trump effect
The impact of Donald Trump is felt in many different ways in El Salvador. Two stories this week illustrate the "Trump Effect."
El Salvador's minister of the economy, Tharsis Salomón López, stated that the presence of Donald Trump in the White House appears to be generating an increase in remittances sent from Salvadorans living in the US back to El Salvador. Salvadorans sent back a reported $2 billion in the first four months of 2017, a growth of more than 10% over the same period in 2016. According to the minister, central banks in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have reported the same phenomenon.
Perhaps Salvadorans are sending assets back in the event they are deported? Perhaps they feel their money is safer in a country which does not have an anti-immigrant president? The dynamics of this increase in remittances is not clear.
Regardless of the cause, the head of the Ministry of the Economy would like to see those remittances invested in El Salvador, and not just be used for consumption of consumer goods.
The New York Times has a story on another Trump Effect we have previously noted: fewer Salvadorans and other Central Americans are making the trek north in search of refuge in the US. From the article titled: Central Americans, ‘Scared of What’s Happening’ in U.S., Stay Put.
El Salvador's minister of the economy, Tharsis Salomón López, stated that the presence of Donald Trump in the White House appears to be generating an increase in remittances sent from Salvadorans living in the US back to El Salvador. Salvadorans sent back a reported $2 billion in the first four months of 2017, a growth of more than 10% over the same period in 2016. According to the minister, central banks in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have reported the same phenomenon.
Perhaps Salvadorans are sending assets back in the event they are deported? Perhaps they feel their money is safer in a country which does not have an anti-immigrant president? The dynamics of this increase in remittances is not clear.
Regardless of the cause, the head of the Ministry of the Economy would like to see those remittances invested in El Salvador, and not just be used for consumption of consumer goods.
The New York Times has a story on another Trump Effect we have previously noted: fewer Salvadorans and other Central Americans are making the trek north in search of refuge in the US. From the article titled: Central Americans, ‘Scared of What’s Happening’ in U.S., Stay Put.
Many in the Central American countries known as the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — appear to be [staying put]. Those nations have accounted for many of the undocumented immigrants who have tried to cross the American border in recent years. Now the wariness about Mr. Trump’s immigration policies is palpable, the impact visible.
Migrant smugglers in Honduras say their business has dried up since Mr. Trump took office. Fewer buses have been leaving the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula bound for the border with Guatemala, the usual route for Honduran migrants heading overland to the United States. In hotels and shelters along the migrant trail, once-occupied beds go empty night after night.Read the rest of the NYT article, which focuses on Honduras, here.
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