Latin America: Demographic Dynamics and the Migration Processes Transformation

Latin America is one of the high level migration activity regions. The mass migration flows are the part of the Western Hemisphere South nations history for more than a century and a half. Both the structure and direction of that flows have been significantly transformed during that period. While being the transatlantic flows recipients at the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries, the Latin American States turned into donors of human resources in the second half of the XX century due to the profound demographic transformation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the demographic transformations impact on the emigration mobility models development in Latin America and the Caribbean countries. Demographic changes were manifested in different ways in countries with a large share of European migrants and those that were not affected by mass migrations flows at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries. The Central America countries and Mexico have experienced the most profound population explosion that subsequently affected the intensity of the migration movement to the United States. The paper examines the main migration directions of Latin America and the Caribbean residents, identifies two basic mobility source areas that demonstrate different strategies via different destination countries choice. While the United States has become the leading destination country for Latin American migrants, accounting for 93% of migrants from Central America and Mexico, the South American migration is mostly intraregional. The largest regional integration associations migration policies implementation reflects this difference. Spain has become a significant extra-regional migration destination for South America. At the end of the second decade of the XXI century, global economic transformations affect the migration dynamics of Latin American subregions, producing powerful migration crises and local tensions.

Demographic explosion, Latin America, South America, Central America, USA, Spain, migration, migration pressure, transatlantic migration

1. Anuario Estadístico de Extranjería-1998 (1998). Portal de Inmigración. Available at: http://extranjeros.mitramiss.gob.es/es/ObservatorioPermanenteInmigracion/Anuarios/index.html, accessed 21.04.2020.

2. Baker S.R. (2013) Effects of Immigrant Legalization on Crime: The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. SIEPR Discussion Paper, no 12–012. Available at: https://siepr.stanford.edu/sites/default/ files/publications/12-012_3.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020.

3. Bilateral Migration Matrix-2017 (2017). World Bank. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/migrationremittancesdiasporaissues/brief/ migration-remittances-data, accessed 21.04.2020.

4. CEPAL. CEPALSTAT. Available at: http://estadisticas.cepal.org/, accessed 21.04.2020.

5. “Cerca de un Millón y Medio de Venezolanos Está Viviendo en Colombia”; Director de Migración Colombia (2019). Migración Colombia, October 23, 2019. Available at: https://www.migracioncolombia.gov.co/noticias/200-octubre-2019/cerca-de-un-millon-y-medio-de-venezolanos-esta-viviendo-en-colombia-director-de-migracion-colombia, accessed 21.04.2020.

6. Cifras de Población. Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Available at: https://ine.es/, accessed 21.04.2020.

7. Ivanovskij Z.V. (ed.) (2017) Political Conflicts in Latin America: Challenges of Stability and New Opportunities, Moscow: ILA ACR (in Russian).

8. Korobkov A.V. (2008) Migration Policy of the USA: Lessons for Russia. Russia in Global Affairs, no 3, pp. 27–40. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru/download/elibrary_23597397_72500893.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020 (in Russian).

9. Krastev I. (2018) After Europe, Moscow: «Delo» RANKhiGS (in Russian).

10. Krogstad J.M., Passel J.S., D’Vera C. (2019) 5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S. Pew Research Center, June 12, 2019. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-factsabout-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/, accessed 21.04.2020.

11. Kudeyarova N.Yu. (2017) The Mass Migration Epoch in Latin America: Globalization vs. Localization. Latinskaya Amerika, no 2, pp. 76–91. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru/download/elibrary_28912666_37172982.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020 (in Russian).

12. Kudeyarova N.Yu. (1) (2019) Latin Americans in Spain Ten Years after the Migration Boom. Latinskaya Amerika, no 10, pp 31–47 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31857/S0044748X0006409-8

13. Kudeyarova N.Yu. (2) (2019) The Southwest Border Problem Politicization: the U.S. and Mexico in Regional Migration System. USA & Canada: Economics, Politics, Culture, vol. 49, no 11, pp. 55–70 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31857/S032120680007286-8

14. Migration and Remittances Factbook-2016 (2016). World Bank, Washington, DC: World Bank. Migración Laboral en América Latina y el Caribe – Corredores Migratorios: Bolivianos, Paraguayos y Peruanos a Argentina – Perfil de los Migrantes. International Labour Organization (ILO). Available at: http://libguides.ilo.org/migracionlaboralALCcorredoresmigratorios/Bolivianos-paraguayos-y-peruanos-a-Argentina-perfildelosmig, accessed 21.04.2020.

15. Migración y Movilidad Humana. Comunidad Andina. Available at: http://www.comunidadandina.org/Seccion.aspx?id=311&tipo=TE&title=migracion-y-movilidad-humana, accessed 21.04.2020.

16. Miró C.A. (1968) La Población de América Latina en el Siglo XX. CELADE. Serie A, no 48. Available at: https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/7633/S7100416_es.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y, accessed 21.04.2020.

17. Nahum B. (2007) Estadísticas Históricas del Uruguay, 1900–1950. Vol. 1, Montevideo: Universidad de la República.

18. O’Connor A., Batalova J., Bolter J. (2019) Central American Immigrants in the United States. Migration Information Source, August 15, 2019. Available at: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states, accessed 21.04.2020.

19. Panorama Social de América Latina 2019 (LC/PUB.2019/22-P/Re v.1) (2019). CEPAL. Available at: https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/44969/5/S1901133_es.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020.

20. Passel J., D’Vera C., Gonzalez-Barrera A. (2012) Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero – and Perhaps Less. Pew Hispanic Center, April 23, 2012. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2012/04/23/net-migration-from-mexico-falls-to-zero-and-perhaps-less/, accessed 21.04.2020.

21. Perfil Migratorio de Uruguay-2011 (2011), Buenos Aires: Organización Internacional para las Migraciones.

22. Pombinho Soares V. (2018) Nuevos Migrantes: Qué Aportan a la Argentina Paraguayos, Bolivianos, Venezolanos, Peruanos y Colombianos. La Nación, March 9, 2018. Available at: https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/nuevos-migrantes-que-aportan-a-la-argentina-paraguayos-bolivianos-venezolanos-peruanos-y-colombianos-nid2115547, accessed 21.04.2020.

23. Recchini de Lattes Z., Lattes A.E. (eds.) (1975) La Población de Argentina, Buenos Aires. Residencia en el MERCOSUR. MERCOSUR. Available at: https://www.mercosur.int/ciudadanos/residir/, accessed 21.04.2020.

24. Southwest Border Migration FY-2019 (2019). U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Available at: https://www.cbp.gov/ newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration, accessed 21.04.2020.

25. Trump D.J. (2016) Donald J. Trump’s Vision. Yale Law School. Available at: https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/Faculty/immigrationtalk_trumpimmigrationstatement_11-15-16.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020.

26. Trump D.J. (2018) Donald J. Trump. Twitter, October 18, 2018. Available at: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1052888451199262725, accessed 21.04.2020.

27. Venezuela Situation-2019 (2019). UN HCR. Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/vensit, accessed 21.04.2020.

28. Vishnevskij A.G. (2019) Demographic History and Demographic Theory, Moscow: HSE (in Russian).

29. World Development Indicators. World Bank. Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators#, accessed 21.04.2020.

30. World Migration Report-2019 (2019), Geneva: International Organization for Migration.

31. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables (2017). United Nations. Working Paper no ESA/P/WP/248. Available at: https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2017_KeyFindings.pdf, accessed 21.04.2020.

32. World Population Prospects-2019, Online Edition. Rev. 1. Median Age by Region, Subregion and Country (2019). United Nations. Available at: https://population.un.org/wpp/, accessed 21.04.2020.

33. Zamberlam J. (2004) O Processo Migratório no Brasil e os Desafios da Mobilidade Humana na Globalização, Porto Alegre: Pallotti.