Going Beyond the ‘Refugee’: Examining Salvadorans’ Incorporation Process (1980-2010) in the U.S.

• In Event: Migracion, Familias y masculinidades

Abstract

Recently, Salvadorans have been in the news due to the ‘crisis’ in the Mexico-U.S. border. Along with other Central Americans, Salvadoran children entering the U.S. are escaping the escalating violence plaguing their country. Though this border ‘crisis’ has generated fear and protest from certain segments of the U.S. population, Central Americans, and in particular Salvadorans, have been migrating since the nineteenth century, with the greatest migration stream entering the U.S. in the 1980s. As generations of Salvadorans are establishing themselves, what do we know about their incorporation process? According to Abrego (2008), (Mahler (1996) and Hamilton and Chinchilla (2001), Salvadorans are experiencing improvements in their quality of life while still facing structural challenges. Using Integrated Public-Use Micro (IPUMS) data of 1980-2010 Salvadoran cohorts, we seek to expand these analyses. In particular, we look at education, household income, wage, occupation and gender to assess changes in socio-economic status and mobility. We also compare economic data of major areas of concentration (i.e. California, Texas, New York, Maryland and Virginia) to see in which vicinities Salvadorans are faring better or worse. Our preliminary results indicate that women are increasingly occupying sales jobs and managerial jobs in some destination areas while attaining college degrees. In contrast, men are concentrated in blue-collar jobs and have less educational attainments but earn more income compared to their female counterparts. We hope to add visibility to a Latino group that is the fourth largest in the U.S. (Mottel and Patten 2012) and offer policy recommendations.

Authors

• Karen I Tejada, University of Hartford

• Gilberto Marzan, Bronx Community College