Tendencias y patrones de la migración internacional en América Latina y el Caribe

Resumen

This analysis of the main trends and patterns of migration in Latin America and the Caribbean opens with a description of existing data sources and of the CELADE project, Investigation of Intemational Migration in Latin America (WIILA), which quantifies migration and describes migrant stocks on the basis of information drawn from national censuses.Migration in the region falls into three broad pattems.The frst relates to irnmigration into Latin America from abroad, which has declined i n intensity in recent decades; moreover, immigrant stocks diminished as a result of non-renewal of flows, return movements and the effects of mortality.The second pattern, intra-regional migration, has been fuelled by structural trends (inequality in economic and social development ) as well as short-term factors.Having doubled in the 1970s, the stock of such migrants has tended to stabilize.The third pattern is that of emigration of Latin American and Caribbean nationals to the United States, where the stock of immigrants from the region doubled between 1980 and 1990.Other issues examined are the composition of rnigratory flows by gender, the percentage of skilled persons and the positive and negative effects of migration which interact contrapuntally at the structural and individual levels.The study coneludes with some reflections on current migratory trends.A brief analysis of the relationship between migration and development trends reveals the potential that open regionalism and integration can have within the broader sphere of globalization.Migration policies, if they are to be valid and effective, must be based on a concerted approach at the intemational leve1 and be viewed as yet another development strategy.