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  • Title: Recent trends in human migrations: the case of the Venezuelan Andes.
    Author: Suarez MM, Torrealba R.
    Journal: Mt Res Dev; 1982; 2(3):299-306. PubMed ID: 12312837.
    Abstract:
    Changes in world capitalism caused prices of traditional raw materials to fall and new energy demands to arise at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The Andean countries witnessed the fall in the value of their exports and began to receive large flows of foreign investment in mining and industry. Consequently, urban economies were strengthened and demographic patterns were changed. This led to the internal migrations and to a process of social change. These consequences are summarized from relevant studies focusing on Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. Since the 1960s a compendium of information has become available which highlights the causes of the migration, migration patterns, the composition of migratory movements, and the mechanisms that the migrant uses to establish himself/herself in the city. Preston (1969) distinguished 2 migratory patterns in Ecuador: rural to urban, with migratory flows from the rural areas to urban centers and new industrial cities that experienced development and high demand for unskilled labor at comparatively high wages: and rural to rural, based on the movement of population from depressed rural areas to other areas in which programs for colonization or commercial agriculture have been promoted. In a study of Colombia, McGreevey (1968) identifies the lack of cultivatable land, rural violence in certain departments, and other economic and family causes as the principal factors that induced migrations to the cities. The study emphasizes that the predominant model of movement relates to "fill in" migration. The spatial mobility of the Venezuelan Andean population was initially outlined in a voluminous report on economic and social problems of the region (1954). The study indicates that during the intercensal period 1941-50 cities grew much more rapidly than rural "municipos" and that the drive to find employment and earn a living were the most important motives in the movement of peasants to the cities. All of the studies identified that use demographic, economic, or phychosocial approaches have provided partial explanations of the current status of Andean migrations. The explanations they offer, by not transcending the current reality of the migrants, overlook the historical traits of internal migration. Migratory flows do not spring up suddenly. They result from specific socio-political circumstances which, when closely linked to demographic evidence, serve as a basis for understanding the process. Review of studies on internal migration in the Northern Andes, as presented here, reveals a series of distinguishing characteristics: there are 5 migratory patterns--rural to rural, rural to urban, urban to urban, seasonal worker migration, and return migration, and the predominant pattern has been rural to urban; the demographic data show the importance of rural migrants to urban growth in the region and a complementary loss of population in the rural areas; depopulation of the countryside has been selective; and there is a marked disparity in employment remuneration between rural and urban areas.
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