Manuel J. Carvajal

An Economic Analysis of Migration in Costa Rica

In an attempt to explore the determinants of internal migration in Costa Rica the magnitude and direction of population movements for various groups in the country was estimated to help determine who migrates and where. Focusing on observations of individual members of the population grouped by migration status the study tests for statistically significant differentials among groups for key economic variables theorized to affect migration decision making. An empirical model of interregional migration is developed and estimates for all employee household heads in Costa Rica are grouped by place of residence in order to infer the responsiveness of migration to several economic and socioeconomic developments in the urban town and rural sections of society. The sample of 9451 persons was divided into 3 groups: heads of households who had never migrated (nonmigrants); those who migrated but not during the 3 years prior to the 1963 Census (settled migrants); and those who migrated during the 3 years prior to 1963 (recent migrants). Possibly the most important and obvious economic benefit to be derived from migration was an increase in the migrants level of income. Recent migrants earned significantly higher incomes than did settled migrants and settled migrants earned significantly higher incomes than did nonmigrants. The distribution of wages and salaries among recent migrants was more unequal than among settled migrants and the distribution of income among settled migrants was more unequal than among nonmigrants. Disaggregation of the 3 groups by occupational status offers strong evidence that migration is not a simple response to spatial wage differentials but involves a search for higher paying occupations. The incidence of relatively high status and high paying professional and managerial employment was greatest among settled migrants and lowest among nonmigrants with the differences statistically significant among all 3 gorups. The average age of recent migrants was significantly lower than the average age of the rest of the population. The proportion of unmarried individuals among recent migrants was significantly higher than the proportion among either of the other 2 groups. The empirical model of internal migration tested here within the limitations of available Costa Rican data interprets inmigration rates as an approximately linear function of 5 independent variables: the level of local wages and salaries the local unemployment rate the local average educational level estimated average distance from farms to nearest large town and extent of coverage under the social security system. Despite limitations the economic approach to migration determinants used in this study corroborates the view of migration as a rational economic phenomenon.