Migrations and Development in Rural Latin America

Migrations have played a key role in agricultural development in Latin America since the first nomads arrived from Asia. Following the European conquest, social structures excluded most indigenous people, as well as those brought as slaves from Africa or as indentured labourers from Asia, from effective participation in the exercise of political and economic power. Recent European immigrants, and a few from Japan, have had much greater opportunity to acquire land, access to markets and credit and to innovate than have migrants who were already peasant farmers or landless workers. The control of the state by relatively small oligarchies including the large landowners has implied that development strategies have been consistently biased against the interests of low income rural majorities. Many experiences show that when Latin American campesinos are given the opportunity, they can be as hard working, efficient and innovative migrant farmers as anyone else. However, there will have to be profound reforms in socioeconomic and political structures before there can be real agricultural development accompanied by greater opportunities, productivities and improved livelihoods for most of the region's rural people.