Draft first regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

Chapter II
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
origin, which can affect the duration of the demographic dividend in both the origin and destination countries.
The main economic effects of migration include the contribution made by emigrants’ remittances to their home
communities, the role of emigrants and returnees in introducing business skills and technologies, and the
contribution made to the social and economic reproduction of societies in the host countries (ECLAC, 2016).
Migration is now one of the most important issues in the region. All the countries face huge challenges
with infringements of migrants’ rights (violations they encounter are reflected across multiple dimensions)
and the discrimination they suffer on their journeys, in their efforts to fit into destination countries and on their
return to their countries of origin. At the same time, the huge development opportunities created by migration
flows also form part of the region’s migration governance today.
5. Territorial inequality persists
The spatial distribution of the population presents certain distinctive features in Latin America and the Caribbean,
most particularly a high level of urbanization and the opportunities and risks this entails; the continuing rural
exodus; limited options for developing rural areas and small towns and villages; the tendency for population
and activities to concentrate in a few dynamic centres; and the segregation and vulnerability affecting the
poor because of their spatial location (ECLAC, 2015b).
Latin America and the Caribbean is a region whose urban transition is taking place at an enormous speed.
Specifically, the urban share of the population has risen from less than 45% in 1950 to 80% in the current
quinquennium, making this the second most urbanized region in the world.
Migration from rural to urban areas is still going on, but more moderately. Internal mobility is now largely
a matter of migration between urban areas. The region presents a complex combination in which large cities
(except for the very largest) retain their level of attraction, medium-sized cities are still becoming more attractive,
and small cities are constantly losing population. Forecasts suggest that the urbanization of the region will
continue, albeit at a slowing pace.
6. The demographic diversity of indigenous and Afrodescendent
peoples in a context of inequality
There are over 800 indigenous peoples in Latin America, with a population estimated at no less than 48 million
as of 2015. That same year, the Afrodescendent population was over 125 million. 5 Both groups present great
demographic, social, territorial and political diversity within and between countries. Nonetheless, there is a
common denominator: higher levels of material poverty and exclusion as a result of long historical processes. The
classist and racist hierarchical structure of the colonial era meant that indigenous peoples and Afrodescendants
occupied a secondary position and that the inequalities affecting them were accumulated during the creation
of nation-States and have been carried over to the present day.
It transpires from the 2010 census round that Brazil is the country with the largest Afrodescendent population,
representing over half the national total. Next comes Colombia, with almost 5 million Afrodescendent people
(10.5% of the total), Cuba, with slightly over 4 million (36%) and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Ecuador
and Mexico, where the Afrodescendent population is about a million and represents 3.4%, 7.2% and 1.2% of
the total, respectively. As far as indigenous peoples are concerned, Mexico heads the ranking with 17 million
indigenous persons (15.1% of the total), followed by Peru with 7 million (24%), Guatemala with about 6 million
(41%) and the Plurinational State of Bolivia with slightly over 4 million (42.2%).
5
These estimates were obtained from the indigenous and Afrodescendent population percentages in the latest population and housing censuses available from
each country, which yielded an 8% share for indigenous peoples and 20% for Afrodescendants in Latin America. These are considered to be minimum estimates
because continuing problems with ethnic and racial self-identification tend to result in these populations being underestimated.
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