El Salvador Ducks U.S. Immigration Debate

“As the immigrant rights movement mobilizes for a national strike today, few countries have more at stake in the U.S. debate than El Salvador.

Mexico is the biggest factor in the U.S. debate, with more than 26 million people of Mexican descent living here. But Mexico is not as dependent on its expatriate workers as El Salvador. More than two million Salvadorans — a quarter of the country’s population — live in the United States. The vast majority have come in the past 25 years and the majority are here illegally. They send $2.5 billion a year in remittances (remesas) to relatives back home; according to the State Department, that’s about 17 percent of the country’s total gross national product. El Salvador is so dependent on American money that it abolished its own currency in 2000 and made the U.S. dollar the only legal tender.”

Stumble it! | |

Other posts that may interest you (automatically generated)

Voices from the immigration debate (bunch of quotes from politicians)

Tim's El Salvador Blog: Surfing in El Salvador

Tim's El Salvador Blog: Environmental concerns in El Salvador

Tim's El Salvador Blog: Top El Salvador Stories of 2005

Immigration debate heats up in the House - Florida

Tim's El Salvador Blog: Electoral campaigns in El Salvador

U.S. immigration reform blasted at Hispanic event - by the president of El Salvador in Long Island

Latina Lista: Immigration Debate has Good Unintended Consequences for Latino Communities

Tim's El Salvador Blog: El Salvador tallies the costs of Hurrican Stan

Tim's El Salvador Blog: El Salvador wants investments in the homeland