Costa Rica - The IOM Regional Office in Costa Rica is today presenting a regional study on Intraregional Labour Migration Flows: Current Situation, Trends and Opportunities in Central America and Dominican Republic.

The study points to a dearth of information on labour migration in the region, with the exception of flows from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Haiti to Dominican Republic  

“Very little is known about Nicaraguan migrants in Panama and about Hondurans in Guatemala.  But we have even less information on how labour migration has impacted families in the region,” said Robert Paiva, IOM Regional Director for Central and North America and the Caribbean.

The authors stress that this lack of information has led to a lack of public policies to better manage these flows and the development potential of migration.

The study analysed three main questions: Who are the labour migrants? What changes have occurred in the lives of the migrants and their families? And what are the existing mechanisms designed to manage labour migration flows and how effective are they?

The research pointed to three new labour migration trends: Nicaragua to El Salvador, Guatemala to Honduras, and Nicaragua to Panama.  But it also confirmed continued flows between long-established labour migration flows: Nicaragua to Costa Rica, Guatemala to Belize, and Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

Other significant findings included:

• Migrants interviewed admitted to not having a close relationship with family left behind.  This was corroborated by the families interviewed in the countries of origin.
• The amount of remittances sent by intraregional labour migrants is relatively low and very sporadic.
• In almost all countries covered by the study, the migrants said they received better treatment and higher salaries from employers in the host countries than from those they had worked for in their country of origin.
• The vast majority of those migrants working in agriculture, construction and domestic service are irregular migrants and are therefore more vulnerable to abuse and violation of established labour laws.
• In most cases, the employer is the only one who can apply for work permits for his migrant employees. This makes it extremely unlikely for the migrant to regularize his/her migratory status as they must rely on the goodwill of employers.  

The study also stresses the needed for increased information sharing and compilation of labour migration data, as well as awareness-raising activities on the social, economic and cultural contributions of migrants to countries of origin and destination.

“This extensive regional study has brought to light realities that policy makers need to address in the near future.  For example, some countries in the region are facing an ageing population, while others will continue to have an excess of young people in need of employment in the coming decades.   Another major find is that intraregional labour migration is filling the void left by those who have migrated north to the United States or others who have left the countryside and have settled in urban areas,” notes Paiva.

The regional study, co-funded by IOM’s Development Fund, was carried out by IOM, the Education and Cultural Coordination mechanism of the Central American Integration System, the UN’s International Labour Organization, the Central American Program for Vocational Training and Labour Placement, and the Labour Market Observatories of Central America and Dominican Republic.

The study is available in Spanish at: http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/pbn/docs/Informe-Costa-Rica-Flujos-Migratorios-Laborales-Intrarregi.pdf

For more information, please contact

Salvador Gutierrez
IOM San Jose
Tel: +506 22.12.53.37
Email: sgutierrez@iom.int