Resource May 23, 2018

Meet the Journalist: Jonathan Blitzer

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A view of San Salvador from the northern outskirts of the city. Image by Jonathan Blitzer. El Salvador, 2016.
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Thousands of Salvadorans deported by the Obama Administration find a surprising new life in an...

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Jonathan Blitzer investigates what the legacy of deportations in El Salvador are? Image by Jonathan Blitzer. El Salvador, 2018,
Jonathan Blitzer investigates what the legacy of deportations in El Salvador are? Image by Jonathan Blitzer. El Salvador, 2018,

Pulitzer Center grantee Jonathan Blitzer covers the impact deportation has had on Salvadorans who fled their war-torn country as children, only to be forced to return as adults, unfamiliar with the culture or language. In the 1990s the United States began deporting gangsters—they would often arrive in El Salvador with nothing.

Many are stigmatized for having been deported. Local gangsters extort and brutalize them; employers refuse to hire them; and banks don't extend them credit. Those who can have found work in an unlikely new industry: call centers now that American corporations are increasingly outsourcing their customer service and technical support to Central America, where there's a growing English-speaking workforce. Deportations help fuel the industry.

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