More Than Three Million Colombians Live Abroad, According to IOM Migration Profile
The newly released IOM Migration profile for Colombia reports that
an estimated one in every 10 Colombian lives outside the country
and that 85.7 per cent of them migrated in search of employment and
better economic opportunities.
With a total of 3,378,345 of its nationals living abroad (mainly
in the United States, Venezuela and Spain), Colombia has become one
of the main countries of origin for migrants in the South Americas
continent.
Figures from the 2005 census show a stark difference between
migration in and out of Colombia, contrasting the 3.37 million
Colombians abroad with a total of 109,971 immigrants in the
country.
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target="_blank" title="">Perfil Migratorio de Colombia
2010
Migration from Colombia began in the late 1960s and early 1970s
with the first wave of migrants crossing into Venezuela.
Colombians, who began migrating to the United States in the 60s,
were mostly university graduates, including doctors and
engineers. In the mid 70s, migration flows to the US included
unskilled workers and middle-class entrepreneurs.
The second significant migration wave took place in the 1980s,
mainly to Venezuela due to its economic boom. In the 1990s,
migrants turned to other destinations, with Spain the preferred
choice as increased enforcement made it more difficult to enter the
US and Venezuela.
Keeping pace with migration, remittances from Colombian migrants
abroad steadily increased over the past decade. The
country’s central bank, or Banco de la República,
reported a total of USD 4.843 billion for 2008. In 2009,
remittances dropped by 14.4 per cent to USD 4.145 billion, falling
even further in 2010 to USD 4.024 billion.
The IOM profile also reveals a large percentage of highly
skilled Colombians living overseas, which surpasses that of
Argentinian and Brazilian migrants. In 2007, the total number
of highly skilled Colombian migrants registered at 309,526, or 10.3
per cent of the Colombian diaspora.
Thirty-seven per cent of Colombian migrants in the United States
have completed some university courses or have master’s
degrees but only 14 per cent of those living in Colombia have the
same level of formal education.
The profile also looks at internal displacement, mainly in rural
areas due to the presence of illegal armed groups. According to the
Presidential Agency for Social Action or Acción Social,
between 2000 and 2009, 3.3 million Colombians were internally
displaced by violence, representing an issue of major concern to
the government.
However, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported
a decrease in the number of Colombians requesting international
protection in 2009. Ecuador hosts the largest number of Colombian
refugees with more than 52,452 Colombians granted refugee status by
the Ecuadorian government, according to UNHCR.
The IOM profile also notes migration policy developments in
Colombia. Favourable changes for migrants introduced in the 1991
Constitution included the right to nationality for children born
abroad to Colombians; the right to hold dual citizenship;
out-of-country voting in senate elections and a seat in Congress to
represent Colombians abroad.
With migration firmly included in the government’s agenda,
the country’s Development Plan for 2002–2006
incorporated a section on Colombian communities abroad with
strategies to reach out to the Colombian diaspora.
Download a full copy of the
"paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.oim.org.co/Publicaciones/tabid/74/smid/522/ArticleID/461/reftab/37/t/Perfil-Migratorio-de-Colombia-2010/language/es-CO/Default.aspx"
target="_blank" title="">IOM Migration Profile for Colombia in
Spanish.
For more information, please contact:
Jorge Gallo
IOM Bogota
Tel: +57 1 6397777, Ext. 1219
E-mail:
"mailto:jgallo@iom.int">jgallo@iom.int