migration as an evaluation
variable in Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador, and other nations
with high levels of unauthorized
migration to the United States.
Table 11 U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Northern Triangle
Total U.S. social and
economic foreign
assistance, 20111
El Salvador
Total per capita
foreign assistance,
20092
Major U.S.
development initiatives
$97.1 million
$45
Millennium Challenge
Remittance policy framework:
Corporation; Partnership
Creating alternative options for
for Growth
the use of remittances would
Guatemala
$92.4 million
$27
Feed the Future
be facilitated by the creation
of national policy frameworks.
Honduras
$54.3 million
$61
Millennium Challenge
U.S. development agencies and
Corporation; Feed
the Future
Northern Triangle governments
can collaborate with immigrants,
Latin America
$1.45 billion
$16
----the development community,
and civil society in building
these frameworks. MCC’s upcoming Threshold Program in expanded programs focused on long-term reintegration for
Honduras would be a timely vehicle for policy and institutional deportees.
reforms on remittances. Standard MCC compacts, such as
the one being renewed in El Salvador, and the Partnership Immigration Policy Reform
for Growth are other opportunities to craft remittance policy
Northern Triangle migrants in the United States are an
frameworks. The Latino American Idea (discussed above)
important resource for the economic survival of their famiis a development program where remittance policy can be
lies and communities back home. While reducing unauthorshowcased.
ized immigration should be the long-term goal of countries
Productive investment programs: One of the missing pieces of origin, in the medium-term both the United States and
in connecting remittances to sustainable development in host countries could benefit from immigration reform that
Central America is training recipients on how they might includes legal avenues for migration and guest workers in
use their remittances for wealth-generating projects. The the United States. The DREAM Act, AgJOBS, and broader
Inter-American Foundation is a leader in this regard. U.S. legalization proposals would all aid immigrants as well as
development agencies have the capacity and presence their families in Central America.
on the ground in the Northern Triangle to support this
training. The Feed th