Subsequent groups came—not directly from El Salvador—but from countries like Mexico and Costa Rica that housed Salvadoran refugees.

Many migrants from El Salvador are skilled workers, but their lack of fluent English forced them into unskilled jobs.

[10] Many can trace their roots back to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, Ireland, Poland, and other European countries.

[11] The governor of San Salvador, Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet, ordered families from northern Spain (Galicia and Asturias) to settle the area to compensate for the lack of indigenous people to work the land; it is common to see people with blond hair, fair skin, and blue or green eyes in municipalities like Dulce Nombre de María, La Palma, and El Pital.

A majority of Central European settlers in El Salvador arrived during World War II as refugees from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland, most of them stayed in Chalatenango.