Abstract
From 1960-1990, El Salvador’s and Guatemala’s civil wars caused great harm and suffering for their populations, exposing them to oppression, dictatorship, and severe human rights violations. The long term effect of these civil wars is still experienced today in the forms of violence, corruption, unstable economies, and poverty, which block their attainment of the basic necessities of life, including safety, education, jobs, and food. Many Salvadoran and Guatemalan families make the dangerous and costly choice to flee their homeland in search of security and a better way of life. However, once they arrive in the U.S., their relatively low levels of education, job skills, and English language attainment in comparison to other Central and Latin Americans make it extremely challenging for these two immigrant groups to integrate into the socio-economic fabric of the U.S. Thus, many Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants in American communities are failing into the cycle of poverty. This thesis argues that Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants exhibit analogous vulnerabilities to refugees who have similarly fled violence and threats to life. However, because the American military supported Salvadoran and Guatemalan civil war efforts, it has not been politically expedient for the U.S. Government to award these populations with refugee or asylee status. Arriving without documentation, skills, or economic support, Guatemalans and Salvadorans quickly fall into the cycle of poverty. For two primary reasons, it is in the U.S. Government’s best interests to help them gain self-sufficiency and better integrate into American life. First, the U.S. must face some level of accountability for its role in Salvadoran and Guatemalan civil wars, which prompted the dislocation of both populations. Second, this thesis argues that lacking intervention, Salvadoran and Guatemalan communities in the U.S. will create pockets of poverty that depress local communities and increase the likelihood of the same types of violence they once fled in their homelands.