Migration: Problem or Blessing?Immigration vs Emigration

What about Ecuadorian abroad? And foreign people here?• One of the largest

immigrant group in NY and second largest one in Spain• Two waves of migration,

USA and then to Spain (Europe)• Peruvians and Colombians

are the largest group of emigrants in Ecuador

Where are immigrants from?

• Cañar, Azuay, Loja 1960 to 1980 • 1998 to 2004 • Why?“Low oil prices and floods that damaged export crops, coupled with political instability and financial mismanagement, caused a second economic crisis in the late 1990s. The national currency, the sucre, lost more than two-thirds of its value, and the unemployment rate rose to 15 percent and the poverty rate to 56 percent.”

Figure 1. Number of Ecuadorians who Received Lawful Permanent Resident Status in the United States per Decade, 1960 to 2009

Ecuadorians Abroad

Where in USA? NY, MIAMI, CHICAGO

United States 550 – 600.000

Spain 550.000

Italy 120.000

Venezuela 30.000

Chile 10.000

REMITTANCES ???

•Similar to many Latin American countries, Ecuador depends on the funds its migrants send home. The Inter-American Development Bank estimated that Ecuador received $2.0 billion in remittances in 2004, equivalent to 6.7 percent of its GDP and second only to oil exports; 14 percent of adults in Ecuador receive remittances regularly.

What for???

•At least 75 percent of remittances are used first for basic household needs — education, food, medicine — and to cancel debts. In 2006, migrants had to pay coyotes or document forgers approximately $12,500 each for clandestine travel to the United States. After basic needs are met and their debts paid off, thousands of Ecuadorians build new homes, replacing modest adobe structures.

Homework

Compare causes and consequences of internal and international migration to give your opinion

on the matter.