Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

MIGRATION-LATIN AMERICA: Now It Is Europe That Beckons

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jun 15 2004 (IPS) - Latin American and Caribbean migration to Europe is likely continue growing in the short term, despite its already extraordinary expansion during the past decade, says a new study by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The existence of large, established communities of “diaspora” in Europe will contribute to increased flows of migrants, says the author of the report, Adela Pellegrino, expert from the University of the Republic of Uruguay.

The flow of migrants, which for centuries moved from Europe to the countries of the Americas, changed direction in the 1980s and 1990s, with the number of people from Latin America and the Caribbean becoming increasingly significant in Spain and Italy.

Their numbers in Spain, for example, grew from 92,642 in 1995 to 514,485 in 2003. Most of these immigrants have arrived in the past three years, and the numbers are higher if one considers those with dual nationality and those who do not have the proper immigration and residency documents.

Such increases have been seen in other European countries as well, particularly in Italy and Portugal. The number of people from the Caribbean arriving in Britain has also been on the rise, says the report ”Migration from Latin America to Europe: Trends and Policy Challenges”, released Tuesday in English by the IOM’s Geneva office.

Among the factors that have contributed to the phenomenon, Pellegrino mentions the economic crises in Latin America and the U.S. crackdown on immigration controls and implementation of stricter visa controls in the wake of the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

These circumstances have made Europe a more appealing destination. And the data the author cites in the report indicate that Latin American and Caribbean migration to Europe likely will keep growing in the coming years.

The sectors of the European job market where Latin American and Caribbean immigrants have a significant presence include personal services, domestic work, hotels and restaurants, and construction.

The Uruguayan expert lays out the theories that labour demand and accompanying policies are significant in the recent process of increased migration to Spain.

”While it is true that the conditions in the countries of origin worsened, as is the case of Argentina or Colombia in 2002, and did not obviously improve in Ecuador or Peru… the factor of demand, and more precisely the Spanish labour market” has attracted workers, says Spanish researcher Antonio Izquierdo, cited in the IOM report.

The study also mentions that relations between states create a link that ”predisposes the initiation of migration flows” and can be economic or political, but they ”also depend on the international context, and on power relations between states.”

In this sense, the relations of the United States with Latin American countries constitute a perfect example of ”how the influence of power relations and the weight of U.S. hegemony over other countries are reflected in migration,” says Pellegrino.

As for Europe, it wields less influence over Latin America, but the ”historic ties are very present and are important when it comes to political and economic decisions,” according to the report.

The European strategy has included an effort to re-establish and deepen ties with Latin America, and has come to the fore in the current phase of trade liberalisation and ”the race to capture markets for exports and to recruit skilled workers.”

The report underscores the important role played by remittances that emigrants send to their families in their countries of origin. The IOM also sees remittances as a priority, and is seeking ways that those funds can contribute to development in the countries of origin, said organisation spokesperson Niurka Piñeiro.

The average sum sent by Latin American and Caribbean immigrants living in Europe is greater than the average remittance sent by their counterparts in the United States. But the total amount sent from Europe is less because the immigrant community there is much smaller than in the United States.

Worldwide, the number of migrants grew from 75 million in 1965 to 175 million in 2002. And global remittances totalled 43 billion dollars in 1980, steadily increasing to surpass 80 billion dollars last year.

Inter-governmental organisations are working to reduce the costs emigrants pay to send money to their countries of origin, which can run 10 to 20 dollars to send 200 to 300 dollars. In Hong Kong, competition amongst remittance companies produced a reduction in price, to just 2.5 dollars per transaction.

Reduced costs increases the funds that are sent to the countries of origin, mostly in the developing world, said Piñeiro.

Latin America and the Caribbean received the largest portion – around 38 billion dollars – of the total remittances sent by emigrants worldwide in 2003. Of that sum, an estimated 30 billion dollars were sent from the United States.

Pellegrino’s study is based on 2002 figures, which indicate that remittances totalling 2.5 billion dollars were sent from Japan, one billion from Spain and Canada each, and some 1.5 billion amongst the Latin American and Caribbean countries themselves.

The author also highlighted a distinctive characteristic of migration from Latin America: the ”feminisation” of the flow of emigrants. The increasing predominance of women is most evident in the populations migrating from the Dominican Republic and Colombia, and to a lesser degree, from Ecuador and the Southern Cone countries of South America.

Feminisation coincides with the growing participation of women in the labour market. The migration of women is in large part autonomous, as it is no longer characterised as “accompanying the spouse or family”, but rather as women searching for work and a means of increasing household income.

In all countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of women emigrating to Europe is more than 50 percent of the total flow, and in some cases, like the Dominican Republic, it reaches 68 percent, said Piñeiro.