Internal Migration and Forced Displacement in Colombia in the - PDF document

Internal Migration and Forced Displacement in Colombia in the Transition into the 21 st Century: a Multiscale Approach Sulma Marcela Cuervo Ramírez 1 Alisson Flávio Barbieri 2 José Irineu Rangel Rigotti 3 Abstract This paper evaluates the Colombian pattern of internal migration and forced displacement and its relationship with the historical transformations in the country since the last half of the 20 th century in the context of armed conflict in recent Colombian history. We used data gathered by the Demographic Censuses of 1993 and 2005 and Registry System of Displaced Population of the National Information Network on Victims of the Armed Conflict (RUPD-RNI) to establish the balance of gain and loss of population in the space. For the purpose of analysis, and in order to understand both migration and forced displacement, four different scales were considered: regional, departmental, provincial, and municipal. Results of this study show that, despite the major role of metropolitan areas in absorbing migrant populations, new areas (such as international borders with Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador) have increasingly attracted migrants and reshaped the Colombian migration pattern. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that confirms that internal migration in the country cannot be interpreted without considering other forms of mobility. Keywords : Colombia, internal migration, forced displacement, demographic census. Resumen Este trabajo analiza el patrón de migración interna y de desplazamiento forzado en Colombia, como parte de las transformaciones históricas en el país desde la última mitad del siglo XX en el contexto del conflicto armado en la historia reciente. Utilizamos los datos recopilados por los Censos Demográficos de 1993 y de 2005 y el Sistema de Registro de Población Desplazada de la Red Nacional de Información sobre Víctimas del Conflicto Armado (RUPD-RNI) para establecer el saldo de ganancias y pérdidas de población como resultado delos intercambios migratorios en el espacio. Para comprender tanto la migración interna como el desplazamiento forzado, consideramos cuatro escalas diferentes de análisis espacial: regional, departamental, provincial y municipal. Los resultados muestran que, a pesar del importante papel de las áreas metropolitanas en la absorción de las poblaciones migrantes, nuevas áreas -como las fronteras internacionales con Panamá, Venezuela y Ecuador-, han atraído cada vez más inmigrantes y han remodelado el patrón migratorio colombiano. El estudio proporciona evidencias que confirman que la migración interna en el país no puede ser interpretada sin considerar otras formas de movilidad. Palabras clave : Colombia, migración interna, desplazamiento forzado, censos demográficos. 1 Postdoctoral Program in Demography, Center for Planning and Regional Development, Universidade Federal de Minas Geraisl. Email: sumacura@gmail.com 2 Professor, Department of Demography, Center for Planning and Regional Development, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. E-mail: arbieri@cedeplar.ufmg.br 3 Professor, Department of Demography, Center for Planning and Regional Development, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. E-mail: rigotti@cedeplar.ufmg.br 1

1. Introduction Migratory processes in Colombia, as in most of other Latin American countries, have been characterized by their different stages, deeply linked to economic processes and productive transformations. Initially, these processes go through a predominantly rural period, then pass through a rural-urban transition and, finally, unfound in a predominantly urban era. By the mid-20 th century, Colombia was one of the Latin American countries that rapidly went through population concentration in urban areas (Kalmanovitz & López, 2006), when urban growth rates exceeded 4%, in the 1940's, and increased up to 5% by the 1950's (DANE Censuses, 1964). The rapid increase of population concentration in urban areas in Colombia was favored by three concurrent circumstances: the sudden growth of rural population, which was close to 2% per year in early 1940's (Dumas, Shultz, 1976, Flórez, 2000); the boost of industrialization in recent urban areas (López & Pradilla, 2008); and the economic and political conflicts in rural areas in the country. Income inequality and access to land ownership (Fajardo, 2009); ambiguous definitions of property rights in rural areas (Kalmanvitz & López, 2007); and fragmentation of power networks between political parties in the regions (Pécaut, 2013) triggered a war known as "La Violencia" in the 1940's. The conflict, that led to approximately 200,000 deaths and 2 million displaced people, is recognized by some historians as an undeclared civil war. The war was initiated and led by the rivalry between Liberals and Conservatives, the two traditional political parties (Palacios & Safford, 2002). Unemployment and the growth rural population, added to the violence, became factors of expulsion of peasants. That would not only lead to migration and forced displacement of thousands of peasants into the cities, but also their withdrawal to areas of internal and international border, which later became regions of "late colonization" (Fajardo, 2009, Fals-Borda, 1982). Structural inequities remained and the victims of that war were not repareted. In the 1960's, not only peasant guerrillas , such as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), would arise, but a new phenomenon known as the "Armed Conflict in Colombia" would begin (Palacios & Safford, 2002; González et al., 2002). Deeper into the new century, the emergence of drug trafficking businesses, their penetration into society and institutionality, as well as the appearance of new armed actors, such as paramilitary groups, would lead the country into a situation of permanent crisis. After the decade of the 1980's, the Colombian State attempted eight peace agreements with different armed groups to resolve the crisis (Villarraga, 2016). Only in 2016, after four years of negotiations among representatives of the State and major guerrilla group FARC the Political Agreement for Peace (Drafting Peace, 2016) was signed. The 2

"beginning of the end of the war" opened opportunities for change in the history of Colombian society. At the same time, in the transition into the 21 st century, Colombia, like other countries in the region, underwent profound economic, social and political transformations that would affect the life of the inhabitants throughout the country. Initially, the National Constitution of 1991 was enacted in order to overcome the conflict. The Constitution established new political provisions on civil and democratic rights, as well as political and administrative decentralization for the management of the nation's resources (García & Espinosa, 2011; Gutiérrez, 2010; Echavarría & Villamizar 2007). Consecutively, practices of deregulation and market liberalization were inaugurated, for which the country was not ready. The policy of economic opening of 1991 led to one of the biggest economic crises in Colombian history (Bushnell, 2007; Sanchez et al., 2007). During this new area, the armed conflict reached its greatest exacerbation as a result of violent confrontations between the multiple armed actors and their cross-purposes, which include: a) the control of large productive territories in order to dominate illicit crops and drug trafficking channels; b) the dispossession of land from their inhabitants; c) the actions of the State to confront illegal groups; and d) the silence or elimination of social protest (González, et al 2002, Pécaut, 2013, Robinson, J., D. Acemoglu, 2009). In this complex scenario, several questions about the behavior, volume, intensity, cause, and orientation of migratory flows within the national space inevitably arose. Although the population concentration in large urban areas driven by the expulsion from rural areas is still strong, there is still little study on the dynamics of exchange at the local level regarding both urban and rural areas linked to armed conflict. This article aims to contribute to understanding the patterns in Colombian internal migration as a part of its historical transformations that took place during the second half of the 20 th century. We seek to establish the balance of population gains and losses as a result of the distribution of migratory exchanges of voluntary and forced nature. We examined the information provided by sociodemographic censuses and the information system on victims of armed conflict. We analyzed the answers about the respondents' place of residence five years before the Censuses of 1993 and 2005. To achieve greater understanding, we considered different units of spatial analysis, namely the departmental unit, the provincial unit and the municipal unit and some spatial selections of municipalities, such as Metropolitan Areas. With this study, we hope to contribute to the discussions surrounding recent migrations and support the advancements in the analysis and application of demographic censuses. We also aim to contribute to the understanding of the territory in order to assist the formulation of public policies that aim to overcome structural inequalities of the Colombian society. 3