RUI: From Exclusion to Belonging: Citizen-State Relations Within the Salvadoran Diaspora

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The proposed research studies Salvadoran immigrants' relationships to the United States and El Salvador from the 1980s to the present. Questions examined include: 1. How unauthorized migrants survive disenfranchisement; 2. Why receiving states sometimes legalize undocumented aliens; and 3. Why sending states sometimes encourage expatriate citizens to remain distant but loyal. To address these questions, the proposed research will examine the rationales for these policy changes, the ways that accounts of policy changes position migrants vis a vis each nation, and the effects of policy changes on migrants themselves.Research will be conducted in three sites: Los Angeles, which is home to approximately half of the U.S. Salvadoran population; Washington, D.C., where Salvadoran activists meet with U.S. immigration policymakers; and San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, where Salvadoran officials, politicians and activists devise policies regarding expatriate Salvadorans. Research will consist of interviews with U.S. and Salvadoran policymakers, activists who have attempted to influence policymakers, and the Salvadoran immigrants who are the targets of policies. Between 100-150 individuals will be interviewed. Interviews will elicit interviewees' accounts of policy changes, focusing on explanations for policy shifts, points of controversy, the strategies and alliances that made changes possible, the limitations of current policies, and the possible effects of policy changes on the United States, El Salvador, and migrants themselves. Analyzing these accounts will reveal how and whether unauthorized migrants' strategies for surviving disenfranchisement can in turn lead to some form of enfranchisement in both their countries of origin and of residence.