Migrant-Local Government Relationships in Sending Communities The Power of Politics in Postwar El Salvador

This article analyzes refugee political transnationalism in El Salvador. It assesses the domestic or homeland component of migration history in this Central American country by focusing on the role of both local governments and specific communities. Moreover, it considers differences between areas that vary in terms of the level and type of political organization during and after the civil war, the levels of international migration, population concentration in settlement areas in the United States, and the types of relationships between local authorities and both collective and individual migrants. Studying and comparing political transnationalism may help explain why transnational initiatives progress in some settings but not others. This study considers some of the factors that should be taken into account in order to understand transnational activities in sending communities. The finding show that partisan politics constitute an element to be studied as part of the conditions that may enhance or limit relationships between migrants and local governments in postwar El Salvador