Honduras Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1834 Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1822-1834 (1834 only for Honduras), at Ancestry.com, index and images. ($)
 * 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, at Ancestry.com, index and images. ($)
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at Findmypast; index & images ($)
 * 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for Honduras
 * 1921-1939 Reseñas de pasaportes de varios consulados, 1921-1939, images
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.

Finding the Town of Origin in Honduras
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Honduras, see Honduras Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Honduras Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Honduras

 * Hondurans are one of the groups in Central America with the highest European genetic contribution, mainly Iberian. Most of the Honduran whites are descendants of the Spanish colonists, mostly people from southern Spain. They inhabit most of the western part of the country. Other Honduran whites are descendants of European immigrants who arrived at the beginning of the 20th century.
 * The Spanish introduced Roman Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture.
 * Silver mining was a key factor in the Spanish conquest and settlement of Honduras. Initially the mines were worked by local people, but as disease and resistance made this option less available, slaves from other parts of Central America were brought in. When local slave trading stopped at the end of the sixteenth century, African slaves, mostly from Angola, were imported.
 * Honduras hosts a significant Arab community (the vast majority of whom are Christian Arabs of Palestinian and Lebanese descent). The Palestinians, Syrian, and Lebanese arrived in the country in the late 19th century and early 20th century, from the Ottoman Empire establishing themselves especially in the city of San Pedro Sula. There are other families that settled in Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba and El Progreso. The Palestinian community, well integrated in Honduras, is prominent in business, commerce, banking, industry, and politics. They are popularly known as turcos (Turks) as they came with Turkish passports.
 * The origin of modern Jews living in the country begins in 1920, between this year and 1940 the majority of Jews who arrived in the country were Ashkenazis of German, Polish, and Romanian origin. Most of them came fleeing the growing anti-Semitism in Europe and the Second World War.
 * Also present is an East Asian community that is primarily of Chinese descent, and to a lesser extent Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, Vietnamese also make up a small percentage due to their arrival to Honduras as contract laborers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Emigration From Honduras
Since 1975, emigration from Honduras has accelerated as economic migrants and political refugees sought a better life elsewhere. A majority of expatriate Hondurans live in the United States. A 2012 US State Department estimate suggested that between 800,000 and one million Hondurans lived in the United States at that time, nearly 15% of the Honduran population.

Regions With Significant Emigrant Populations

 * United States	656,000+
 * Spain	58,000+
 * Mexico	15,000+
 * Nicaragua	13,000+
 * El Salvador	12,000+
 * Belize	9,000+
 * Guatemala	9,000+
 * Canada	8,000+
 * Costa Rica	4,000+
 * Italy	3,000+