Place-to-Place Migration in Colombia

Gary S. Fields
1982 Economic development and cultural change  
Excerpt] This paper builds upon earlier work of mine which explored the determinants of population migration in Colombia. As before, the basic proposition is that areas' economic opportunities play a central role in determining the spatial allocation of the population. My earlier paper used published data from the 1973 Colombian Census of Population to establish that the rates of net lifetime migration into Colombia's 23 provinces (or, as they are known in Colombia, "departments") are
more » ... with those areas' labor market conditions. The present paper uses unpublished data for 12 zones (six regions, rural and urban segments of each) to analyze the causes of place-to-place migration flows (lifetime and recent) for the population as a whole and for eight specific demographic groups (four educational categories and the two sexes). Several hypotheses are formulated and tested. The results give strong support to the economic model of migration, overall and in explaining differences in migration behavior among demographic groups. For Colombia this is particularly useful since some past work has been interpreted to the contrary. I. Introduction This paper builds upon earlier work of mine which explored the determinants of population migration in Colombia.' As before, the basic proposition is that areas' economic opportunities play a central role in determining the spatial allocation of the population. My earlier paper used published data from the 1973 Colombian Census of Population to establish that the rates of net lifetime migration into Colombia's 23 provinces (or, as they are known in Colombia, "departments") are associated with those areas' labor market conditions. The present paper uses unpublished data for 12 zones (six regions, rural and urban segments of each) to analyze the causes of placeto-place migration flows (lifetime and recent) for the population as a whole and for eight specific demographic groups (four educational categories and the two sexes). Several hypotheses are formulated and tested. The results give strong support to the economic model of migration, overall and in explaining differences in migration behavior among demographic groups. For Colombia this is particularly useful since some past work has been interpreted to the contrary.2 II. Place-to-Place Migration Models Place-to-place migration studies analyze the rate of gross population flow between pairs of origins and destinations. The economic model
doi:10.1086/452575 fatcat:fihyuyvnjbbplgb2wzxnwwazvm