Bringing Latin America into US debates on latino immigration: Views from El Salvador

Joseph Wiltberger proposes that US immigration policies should incorporate emerging perspectives on migration and development coming from Latin America. He reviews the ways Salvadoran organizations, communities, and migrants understand how migration impacts their livelihoods and development. Salvadoran perspectives emphasize the importance of building sustainable livelihoods in places of origin and the role that migrant mobility and cross-border flows and networks play. This alternative view of migration challenges mainstream US assumptions about Latinos and undocumented immigration, and it calls attention to the need for bi-lateral dialogues and strategies about migration and development. © 2009 Society for International Development.