Large-scale emigration from Colombia began in the 1950s and continues today, with over three million Colombians now living outside of Colombia, a significant number for a country with a population of 50 million. Most of the emigrants have settled in the United States, Venezuela, and Spain, with the highest number in the United States (see Fig. 1) (Guarnizo and Espitia 372). As the graph illustrates, there were peaks in 1964 and in 1990. Not shown are the large numbers undocumented immigrants. The United States offers safety and economic opportunity that the immigrants cannot find in Colombia. The number of Hispanics of Colombian origin living in the United States has tripled since 1990, to over a million today (López). Of those, the number of Colombian-born immigrants has more than doubled to almost 700,000. The largest number of Colombian-born immigrants to the U. S. immigrated between 1980 and 2000 (MPI). Colombian immigrants have settled primarily in the South and Northeast
The biggest migrant community, with 160,000 people, is in Miami, Florida and New York City is a close second. Miami has become the preferred destination for Colombian immigrants due to the widespread use of Spanish there. Also, as more Colombians settle there, it has become popular as a center of Colombian culture.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"The Colombian Diaspora in the United States".
A major issue for Colombian immigrants in the U. S. is the difficulty securing legal residency (Guarnizo and Espitia 384). As a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, immigration policies have become restrictive, resulting in a large population of undocumented immigrants. Not only is being an undocumented alien stigmatizing, it makes finding employment hard and limits participation in society. This problem is partly responsible for the increasing division of Colombian immigrants into an affluent class and an impoverished class.
A second major issue is that, coming from a war-torn country, Colombian immigrants have been slow to organize. Accustomed to a violent environment, corrupt government, and the need to be vigilant, trust is low. This makes survival in a new country difficult and effectively prevents them from lobbying on their own behalf. However, this has been changing. Networks for Colombian immigrants are forming and they are becoming more unified. The Colombian government has also been very supportive of citizens living out of the country.
Emigration from Colombia has been driven by a long history of violent internal conflict and the resulting damage to the economy. Of the various types of diaspora (victim, trading, imperial, and labor), the Colombian diaspora is best described as a victim diaspora. The emigrants were driven by the need to escape civil war, economic depression, and forced displacement. There have been many occasions of extreme violence and disastrous economic events, making it difficult to single out just two key events. One event which may have been key to the large increase of emigrants in the 1950s was the murder of the politician Jorge Gaitán on April 9, 1948, which led to “La Violencia”, a ten-year civil war. The war was between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, and was fought throughout the countryside. It was a vicious conflict, claiming 200,000 lives, and over a million people were displaced. The deaths and destruction were devastating but even more demoralizing was the cruelty. Torture and horrible ways of killing showed an appalling lack of humanity and made emigration attractive to many Colombians. A second key event may have been the Palace of Justice siege on November 6, 1985, which left half of the Supreme Court dead and the Palace of Justice destroyed. The M-19 guerrilla group seized the Palace of Justice in Bogotá and took 300 people hostage, including the entire Colombian Supreme Court. The military mounted a huge assault on the Palace, using questionable judgment in employing rockets and automatic weapons.
There were over 100 deaths and the rockets burned the Palace to the ground. It was the deadliest battle in Colombia’s civil war, but even worse, it reinforced the belief that nowhere was safe and that the government could not protect itself from a strike against the heart of the Colombian justice system. This demonstration of helplessness and violence by the government helped further erode any faith citizens may have still had in the establishment. Emigration to a safer, saner country with a competent government and a stable economy was even more appealing. Conditions in Colombia are improving. There has been a relatively peaceful period and the economy is slowly improving. It is possible that émigrés may even return to Colombia, something the government is trying to encourage.
- Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, and Marilyn Espitia. “Colombia.” The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965, edited by Mary Waters and Reed Ueda, Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 371-385. Print.
- López, Gustavo. “Hispanics of Colombian Origin in the United States, 2013.” Pew Research Center: Hispanic Trends, 15 Sept. 2015, www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/15/hispanics-of-colombian-origin-in-the-united-states-2013/.
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI). “RAD Diaspora Profile: The Colombian Diaspora in the United States.” Migration Policy Institute, May 2015, www.migrationpolicy.org
