Emigration From Colombia: Nobody Wants A Empty Country

EMIGRATION FROM COLOMBIA: NOBODY WANTS A EMPTY COUNTRY

International migration is not a new phenomenon, comes from centuries ago, from the same Bible stories, through the formation of the Nation-State, conquests and colonies; And above industrialization that made many people leave their countries of origin.

Likewise migration affects some regions more than others, both regions of origin (where migrants leave) as a recipient regions (where arrive migrants).

The regions' best known as recipients of migrants are Europe and North America. For this reason is that international migration has reached an importance and a global dimension, which is already on the agenda of the various states, governments and international agencies; But all of them no matter their ideologies share a COMMON CONCERN: to control migration flows as these generate social and economic problems such as unemployment, poverty, extreme poverty, insecurity and overpopulation.

And that is the central theme of this essay, which wants to look at how immigration affects the social and economic scenario of Colombia. Make a special emphasis on the effects of emigration; we will understand why migratory movements are so complicated.

The Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo expressed that emigration generates in Latin America "phenomena such as the flight of human capital and leisure paid family provided for a worker who has emigrated" (Araujo, 2007) This is nerve-racking for Colombia as well as to Latin America which suffers from the same situation.

"Las personas migran por el sudor y las lÐ"ÐŽgrimas provocadas por la ansiedad. Por un sentimiento que carcome de que, no importa quÐ"© tanto trabajen, su esfuerzo no serÐ"ÐŽ recompensado, y que lo que construyen en un aÐ"±o serÐ"ÐŽ destruido por otros en un dÐ"­a. Por la impresiÐ"Ñ-n de que el futuro estÐ"ÐŽ bloqueado, que ellos estarÐ"ÐŽn bien pero no sus hijos. Por el sentimiento de que nada cambiarÐ"ÐŽ, y que la felicidad y la prosperidad sÐ"Ñ-lo se alcanzarÐ"ÐŽn en otro lugar." (Martel, 2001)

According to Martel, people migrate because they believe that nothing will change, that their efforts are in vain and that happiness only will be found elsewhere. Here are combined the push and pull factors, as push factors we have situations such as unemployment, poverty, war. Pull factors as better education, better working conditions, better living conditions which attract immigrants to a country.

These chart shows the main countries of destination of Colombians when they emigrate.

Source: DANE(2006)

Perhaps in the case of Colombia, migrants are motivated by the two of factors, and for that reason, could be justified why 35% of Colombians claim that if they had the means would be to living in another country. (Sarmiento Anzola, 2005)

This is a high figure, which shows the discontent of the Colombian people in their home country, then one could say that the push factor is very strong in the country, but they are limited because there are no means to emigrate; Economic means, legal means, and so on.

When these people go to seek their happiness in other lands, they still leave much of his life in Colombia; this keeps linked them to the country. Socially, are linked to their spouses, children, parents, brothers and on the economically case, is for plain altruism or benefits that they gets by sending resources to their relatives or because they want to invest in physical or human capital in the country of origin as a way of saving. This translates into high sums of money received by Colombia in remittances.

How remittances affect Colombia

Thinking logically, remittances should positively affect their recipients. Indeed, they do. One study shows that in 2004 the flow of remittances to Colombia was $ 4,460 million, sent to nearly 4 million people in Colombia. They also estimated that $ 2,500 million come from the United States, US $ 1,500 million from Europe, $ 300 million from Latin American countries and $ 160 million from the rest of the world. These figures put Colombia as the third recipient of remittances behind Mexico ($ 13,000 million/2003) and Brazil ($ 5,200 million/2003).

But recalling the word of Colombian Chancellor on how migration contributes to leisure paid is necessary to look in depth what happens.

The average monthly remittances, for example in Antioquia is $ 307 and these families spend 26% of money on food, 19% in services, 16% on health, 14% on housing, 13% in education , and 13% in property (Cobo, 2006). This represents a great help for the families and increases their quality of life. Remittances have become a supplement or substitute for wage and are neither will be a source of capital for development.

more than the 60% of the recipients are between 25 and 49 years old, so this shows that this population is too young.3 of 4 recipients are women (40% spouses or mothers), highlights the money sent to brothers over husbands or fathers. Also more than 85% have completed high school and 1 out of 3 is professionals. (Sarmiento Anzola, 2005)

Noting these statistics, we can see that these people are part of the economically active population, and they are replacing its work by the leisure and replacing a salary for this money transfers. But it can be justified on the fact that these people receive in a month is more money than what they will receive for working from 7 am-7 pm.

This profoundly affects the country because many of its professionals no longer desire to work but feel that their needs are satisfied by remittances.

Moreover, the amount of money entering the country through remittances and narcotraffic dollars is very high, which creates a problem of revaluation of Colombian peso versus foreign currencies.

All this affect in one way or another the Colombian economy, this does not mean that remittances are responsible for the economic situation because not having them poverty in Colombia would rise a few more points. But we must recognize that the impact on the economy is real and must be taken into account.

Which is the social problem generated by the migration of Colombians?

The emigration has been