Peru

Feb 8

Full Name: Republic of Perú Peru (República del Perú)

Date of Independence: Spanish colonial rule lasted from 1533 to 1821.

Capital: Lima

Population: 34,070,729 (November 25th est)

Foreign-Born Population: Foreign-born population: 782,000 [Jul. 2019]

Government Structure: Presidential representative democratic republic

Leader(s): Dina Boluarte (President)

Primary Flow of Immigration:

Net migration rate: 0.115 per 1000 population (2021)
Because of its geographic location, Peru is characterized mainly as a transit destination to Chile, Brazil, or Mexico
In recent years it has witnessed an increase in its immigration population mainly from Venezuela and Haiti, due primarily to its high acceptance of asylum seekers and refugees from Venezuela. Peru is the second largest destination for Venezuelan migrants.
For people fleeing Cuba and Haiti, Peru is typically a transit state to Brazil, Ecuador, or Chile, instead of a destination.
In 2019, there were approximately 782,169 immigrants, composing 2.43% of the total population.
In 2021, according to the UNHCR, more than 1.32 million Venezuelan people immigrated to Peru, 532,000 of which seeking asylum, allowing Peru to be one of the “destinations for people seeking protection globally”

Major Destinations of Emigrants:

The country has been characterized by its high emigration rates, particularly young Peruvians who migrate due to economic and political instability in search of better living conditions.
The principal destination countries for migrants leaving Perú (in 2019) are the United States (525,527 emigrants), Chile (205,609), Argentina (198,744), Spain (193,786) , and Italy (117,189)
Internal migration is also extremely common, specifically rural to urban migration in search of increased job opportunities and better living conditions.

Characterized by the younger generation who primarily work in retail, manufacturing, transportation, and communications, moving to cities such as Lima, Callao, Arequipa, or la Libertad

Primary “Push” Factors:

There is a notable increase in the working age population that are unable to enter the workforce, faced with challenges including the lack of employment opportunities. The majority of youth work in the informal sector, and many of which are exposed to precarious working conditions such as low wages, unstable employment, no social security or health insurance, and dangerous work environments.

The unemployment rate for youth is almost three times higher than that for adults

Many emigrants are forced to leave Peru or migrate within peru due to social factors, including violence, internal displacement, education, and civil insecurity.

Many internally displaced people also come from the Andean region- with typically high poverty rates, rural population, a large percent of illiteracy, violence, and physical and economic insecurity.
The poverty rate is over 20% and the pandemic has considerably worsened social inequalities

Because Peru has over 3,000 kilometers of coastline and ecosystems particularly affected by climate change, Peru is “one of the countries in the world where natural events and human mobility are strongly correlated.” (Laura Berdejo, UNESCO)

Between 2008 and 2019, approximately 650,000 of Peru’s population of 33 million were forced to immigrate because of natural disasters, and is expected to continue increasing. Environmental threats further the socio economic vulnerability of the population, and threaten each region of the country:

The coastal region, where most of the country’s population and economy is concentrated, greatly experiences the effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomenon (ENSO), (the heating of the ocean surface temperature). ‘Huaico,’ the name for the flash floods caused by torrential rains as a result of ‘El Niño,’ occurs almost every summer.
The Amazon region’s rainforests are experiencing increasingly large-scale flooding. On the other extreme, they also experience increasingly common severe droughts, riverbank collapses, erosion, deforestation, and dangerously extreme temperatures. Indigenous communities and their lands are threatened as a result and are often forced to migrate to urban areas where they frequently face challenges integrating.
The highland region/Andean region is in some areas increasingly exposed to extreme heat. One of the greatest risks they face is the melting of glaciers, the depletion of which could pose a threat to one of the country’s primary freshwater sources and likely cause the migration of 28% of the Andean area.

Further Reading: