Although immigration to the United States from Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, has captured much public attention, immigrants who move between countries in Latin America have more difficulty than those moving to the United States.
Donald Bogue, professor emeritus in sociology and a distinguished scholar of demography, has found that unlike immigrants to the United States, immigrants between nations in Latin America frequently do not improve their lives by moving.
Migration between developing nations is quite different, Bogue contends. Immigrants to the U.S. from Latin America improve their economic status after five years of residency while, economic status of people moving between Latin American countries does not improve.
Bogue’s work is among the first to compare immigration between Latin American countries with that of immigration to the United States. Although 41 percent of the world’s immigration is among developing countries, little research has been done in the area because of a lack of data
Bogues’s study “The Economic Adjustment of Immigrants to Twelve Nations of Latin America and Comparison with United States,” can be found on Social Science Research Network.
