What is behind the record number of Colombians who emigrated in 2022?

In 2022, some 547,000 Colombians left the country, according to a report from the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (CERAC), a historic figure that exceeds those registered more than 20 years ago, when Colombia experienced a serious economic and security crisis. security.

In 2001, the number of Colombians who left the country was 282,000, which corresponds to the period of crisis that characterized the last two years of Andrés Pastrana’s presidency (1998-2002).

The document says that Colombia is a country in which, every year, approximately 200,000 people leave in search of other directions, but that last year, migration “was 2.7 times the average number of nationals who emigrated each year since 2012 ”.

The causes, as explained by Jorge Restrepo, professor at the Javeriana University and director of CERAC, to the voice of america, may be related to the devaluation of the Colombian peso“which makes it much more profitable to send the work product from abroad to Colombia.”

Second, he explained, the reduction in international transport during the pandemic restrictions, which led many people to postpone trips abroad.

“In Colombia, it is increasingly difficult to make job training, professional training profitable” and it is a country with “enormous difficulties for social mobility, to be able to gain access to social services,” added Restrepo.

He also referred to other reasons that he called “more speculative”, such as “this shock to the job market” what the pandemic left and that led many people to consider looking for an opportunity outside of Colombia.

One of those Colombians was the architect Alfredo Amorocho, who decided to look for better opportunities almost a year ago in the United States: “My profession is not an easy profession. Despite the fact that I have a pretty good resume, the Colombian market does not recognize it”.

For him, Colombia “lacks economic maturity.”

“So much political change and so much corruption because they make the markets be controlled by businessmen and because, in general terms, professionals are now not paid well,” he says.

Amorocho told the VOA that despite having his own company in Bogotá, he initially traveled as a tourist to seek more resources and to be able to solve pending financial issues in his country.

Finally, his story has been positively woven. She obtained a student visa and is waiting for a possible sponsorship and hiring from a company in the US to work in his branch.

The profiles

The analysis indicates that the largest proportion of the Colombian migrant population is young, 35% of national migrants are between 18 and 29 years of age, 23% are over 30 and under 40, and 19% are younger. Restrepo adds that there is, to a certain extent, a balance between men and women who migrate, particularly among the young population. In those over 40-45 years of age, the majority are women, “probably for reasons of family nuclei.”

Kelly Huérfano, a 38-year-old social communicator, explained to the VOA that his motivation to migrate was his family, especially his nephews.

This Colombian, who settled in Sydney, Australia in June of last year, has a student visa, works as a salesperson in a beauty products store and also in another venture in the marketing area. She confesses that starting a new life is not easy, but the company of her family makes the situation more bearable.

At the same time, she states that for her “it is very difficult to make money” in Colombia, which is why she left the country. However, she assures, her plan is to return one day. “In these countries it is easier… She would return, but already having money to be able to buy a house and invest”, she clarifies.

Although the director of CERAC clarifies that migrating is a positive situation for those seeking better opportunities outside their countries of origin, for Colombia this means an “enormous cost, because this is the population that has the greatest productive potential, it is the population that has entrepreneurial capacity” and, in this way, productive capacity is lost “which will affect a lower rate of economic growth in the country”.

main destinations

The organization’s analysis also indicates that the main destination countries for Colombians are the United States, Chile and Mexico.

Precisely, for Amorocho, the 45-year-old architect, the US was once a place to only vacation, but for which he has had a special affection, for a long time, because “the quality of life, culture and other generalities of this country They’re quite wonderful.”

“Here you feel safe, you feel respected… The education of the people is very high. The infrastructure that this country has is wonderful,” she says.

Amorocho considers that emigrating is a matter of courage and that although it seems that he is fleeing from reality, it is a “courageous situation” to which he went with “the hope of being able to offer a better future to those people he loves” and that, in In his case, it is his four-year-old daughter, who still lives in Colombia.

“I’m paying for her college and I’m making sure she has a broad spectrum… I want to give my daughter opportunities for whatever she wants to do. The only thing that interests me is that she is happy and I am here so that she is happy, ”says the Colombian, who lives in Washington.

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