ABSTRACT

Uruguay is one of the South American countries with a significant proportion of population living abroad. Since the 1970s, it has had net emigration. Although this trend weakened considerably in the early 1990s, the momentum was regained with the advent of a severe economic crisis in 1999. This article discusses the characteristics of recent Uruguayan emigration, and it provides evidence of the relationship between economic crisis and emigration. The volume of population outflow in 2002 was comparable to the waves of emigration that took place in the 1970s. College-educated emigrants are overrepresented when compared to the general population. Having access to networks of Uruguayan emigrants in destination countries correlates with the probability, that a household had a member who emigrated in 2002.

Keywords: 1. international migration, 2. economic crisis, 3. skilled migrants, 4. South America, 5. Uruguay.

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In 1998, after almost ten years of continuous economic growth, the Uruguayan economy began to enter a severe economic recession. An acute crisis in the financial system triggered the decline to the lowest point, which was reached in 2002. That year, per capita GDP fell by 11.4% compared to the previous year, and the exchange rate plummeted by approximately 90%. The recession also severely affected the unemployment rate, which reached its highest point in 20 years.

The limited data on migration that is available for recent years suggests that a major wave of new emigration occurred during the economic crisis. The mass media took notice, as did academics and politicians. In spite of that interest, no specific studies were done nor are statistics available that permit an accurate assessment of recent migration.

Although migration is a very important issue in Uruguay, the data available to study it is extremely poor. One possible explanation for that shortcoming is that the absolute number of Uruguayan emigrants is low compared to other countries, even though the proportion of emigrants relative to the Uruguayan population as a whole is among the highest in South America. Consequently, researchers in the destination countries do not place much emphasis on Uruguayan migration. The same is true of the Uruguayan government and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the official body that collects statistical data on the country: The last migration survey was in 1982.

This article aims to provide an estimate of the extent of recent emigration from Uruguay, and to examine its main socioeconomic characteristics. We also provide evidence of the willingness to migrate that exists on the part of individuals still living in their household of origin, and we compare the socioeconomic profile of households that have members who are likely to emigrate with those households that have had recent emigrants.

This study is based on micro-data from the December 2002 World Bank survey, Encuesta de Caracterización Social (Social Characterization Survey, ECS). The sample covered 2,500 households in urban areas, where 90% of the Uruguayan population is located. This is the only source of data available to study recent population outflows in Uruguay. The ECS aimed to record...