The Structural Assimilation of In-Migrants to Lima, Peru

Abstract

The rate of urban growth is extremely high in many less developed countries particularly in Latin America and tends to be more pronounced in the large metropolitan areas than in the smaller urban centers. This rapid growth is attributable to three factors: the growth and subsequent reclassification of previously smaller communities a positive rate of reproductive change among the already existing urban population and massive in-migration (Weller et al. 1971). The magnitude of the latter factor rural-urban migration may be seen in Ducoff’s (1965:202-204) estimate that between 1950 and 1960 there was a net rural-urban migration in Brazil of 6.8 million persons and that there was a rural-urban net migration of over 14 million persons in all of Latin America during that same decade. There appears to be two effects of in-migration upon metropolitan growth. The direct effect can be seen in the number of additional persons that the migrants themselves represent. An illustration of this may be found in the metropolitan area of San Salvador where Ducoff (1962) estimates that 42 percent of the total population were not born there. Other indications of the strength of the direct effect of in-migration upon metropolitan growth may be found in Republica del Peru (1966:23) Simmons and Cardona (1970; 1972) and Browning and Feindt (1968). The indirect effect of in-migrants refers to any children born to in-migrants after they have migrated. Thus Martine (1969; 1972) estimates that female in-migrants account for 45-50 percent of all pregnancies in Guanabara Brazil. (excerpt)