The phrase sounds like cliché: The Salvadoran is a worker and it is sought, or what the Salvadoran adapts to any situation. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but with most of them that needs an economic income or for those who are the only way out of poverty is Leaving his home floor.
That’s what happens with three Salvadorans working in Milwaukee, in the state of Wisconsin, United States. José Miguel Acuña Pineda, Walter Enrique Aguilar and Josué Edgardo Durán Guerra arrived inexperienced on 15 May 2024 and are now in charge of inspect the wooden poles where electricity is transported, via cables, for the Davey Resource Group.
All three are part of the Labour Mobility Programme of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and They received H-2B temporary work visas from the U.S. embassy in El Salvador.
All three have had to look up and adapt to have better income. There hasn’t been any other way. However, his effort has had rewards. Walter Aguilar is 31 years old and is originally from Nahuizalco, Sonsonate. He has two years of traveling to the United States to work, but he had to adapt. First to the cold and then to change work.
Last season, in 2023, he worked on the category of carnivals. What we were doing was putting together all the mechanical games, that we did it one day a week, we put them together, giving them maintenance, before opening them to the customers we had to ‘chemper it’ because it was a big responsibility, apart from that, on Saturday we had to disarm everything because every week we had to move from one town to another town, he explains to Salvadoran journalists in Wisconsin.
Aguilar worked for a telephone company in El Salvador, but his economy needed improvement. He learned about the program to apply to a temporary work visa in the United States and decided to try his luck. The change has been very great, I know I can help my family, my parents and whoever needs it, now. – – Yes.
But he stresses that the improvement was this year, because he earned $700 a week, You can now get more than $1,000 in the same timeAlthough sometimes the weather plays dirty and cuts their days. In Wisconsin, the company for which these Salvadorans work Pay at $19.50 a work time produced and $29.50 each extra hour. In El Salvador, the minimum wage for the trade and services sector is $365 a month.
The total salary obtained each week, in the United States, they are aware that they must pay taxes. This payment is part of the legal and regular work that Salvadorans do in that country. For example, of $1000 they make us a $200 discount, $300 of taxes (taxes)., explains Miguel Acuña, originally from the canton of Los Huatales de Ahuachapán.
After their working day, Salvadorans return to a hotel that has become their home for the last six months. This week they return to El Salvador.
For Miguel it is also the second work experience with an H-2B visa and plans to continue applying and traveling, how many times they grant it.
I had always dreamed of coming in a legal way and when I heard the opportunities I filled myself with joy and said, “Well, today’s when.”
Miguel Acuña,
Salvadoran on H-2B visa.
In El Salvador, Miguel worked in metal structures, but the search for improving his economy led him to apply, as did Edgardo Durán, 29, originally from Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas.
Edgardo also works in carnivals, but for two years; at this time, He rescues that he could improve his learning in English. “There was a lot of learning English, people were asking us one thing or something, there we were practicing English,” he adds.
His work experience in El Salvador is completely different, as he worked at a travel agency while studying a bachelor’s degree in Education Sciences, with a specialty in English at the Catholic University of El Salvador, based in Ilobasco.
In Milwaukee there are at least eight Salvadorans working on H-2B visas
Projects
The increase in the incomes of these three Salvadorans has allowed them to dream and have a better life, they and their families.
Michael wants to finish building his house, have more income to help your family, your parents and return to your 8-year-old. One comes and knows he’s coming back soon, you’re sure because he has a date when he leaves there and he has a date where he’s going to return, he’s not with that seven-year, 10-year-old, none of that., he says in relation to acquaintances who risk irregularly, with human traffickers.
Like him, Walter also has a clear goal; He bought his house and wants to finish paying, in addition, he recounts that he bought 300 lemon trees to cultivate them, but for this he also wants to acquire a plot to grow in the same way.
Walter Aguilar says that among his clear projects are betting on agriculture.
Walter said that his origins are agriculture and that together with his brothers they have always kept planted with vegetables: radishes, cilantro, onion, especially for December, where people are looking for vegetables for the Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
What I would like is to continue buying land, I want to buy land and let the plot be mine, because right now I find myself renting.
Walter Aguilar,
Salvadoran on an H-2B visa and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Edgardo also has investment plans that he has already started, with his own business: a variety store and bookstore in his native Ilobasco, which is attended by his sister and mom, while he works in the United States. However, His desire is to end his career which was unfinished after the covid-19 pandemic.
All three are part of a group of Eight Salvadorans working in Milwaukee with Davey Resources GroupIn the state of Wisconsin, though, there are at least 96 Salvadorans working on an H2 visathe labour mobility programme.
Miguel Acuña shows a photograph of his 8-year-old son waiting for him on his return in Ahuachapán
The labor mobility program comprises 80 per cent of H-2A and H-2B visas in El Salvador, the first is for those looking to do agricultural work in the United States, while the type B visa is for service work. There are 20 percent of those types of visas that are processed by independent recruiters and that assist companies individually.
To apply to the Labour Mobility Program, the person must be 18 years of age or older, not have entered or remained irregularly in the United States, not have a criminal record or judicial proceedings, enjoy good health and have been vaccinated against the covid-19, and also return to El Salvador after the end of his contract.
If you meet these requirements, log in to the website: https://sv.usembassy.gov/en/visas-enes/h-2/escp-workers-seeking-/employment and fill out the form so you can be part of the visa program database. In the form they will ask you to explain what type of work experience you have, however, it is not essential because if you meet the rest of the requirements, the contracting companies train and teach to do the work.
The U.S. embassy in El Salvador approved at least 8,070 H-2B visas during fiscal year 2024, an increase of 14 percent compared to 2023, when 7,533 visas were approved to do service work in the United States.
On November 15, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Friday that it will increase by 64,716 temporary H2-B work visas for all people who wish to work in the U.S. country worldwide; of these, 20,000 will be destined for seven Latino countries, among them, El Salvador.
This article was translated after appearing in Diario El Mundo