An analysis carried out by project State of the Region brings attention to how the changes in the immigration policies of the United States will affect the Central American region, and in particular Costa Rica and Panama, countries that will likely see an increase in the flow of immigrants from other Central American countries.

It is evident that the changes taking place will have an impact in areas such as economy, demographics and work markets. By the year 2000 75% of Central American immigrants resided in the United States, it is estimated that the number of immigrants from this region went from 1 million to 3 million between 1990 and 2017; now, the future of many of these people is uncertain which has a direct effect in the countries in Central America where money transfers are important to the economy, such as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua; in the case of El Salvador, for instance, the amounts received in money transfers were 11 times the amount generated in direct foreign investment.

According to the PEW Investigations Center, so far during the Trump administration, the temporary protected status (TPS) of approximately 200,000 Salvadorians and 2500 Nicaraguans has been cancelled and 57,000 Hondurans could loose this status in the near future.

Good or bad? the return of many of these immigrants to their native countries could represent new opportunities for the region, states the report, since these immigrants will likely now have new skills or better education that could be of benefit to satisfy the demand of human resources with specific profiles in the labor market in their country. On the other hand, many feel that these people could be the targets of gang’s extortion when they come back into their countries perceived as to have some wealth.