Migraciones in pandemic. GRADE Conversa 17 featuring Mauricio Espinoza.
Peru has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the world. Due to the health crisis, in March 2020 the government established a compulsory confinement that caused the paralysis of several economic sectors and a historic increase in the unemployment rate. Despite the vouchers provided, households that depended on the informal economy and experienced the precariousness of the public health system on a daily basis, saw their ability to survive become increasingly complicated. This situation mainly affected low-income households in the poorest areas of Lima and other cities, many of whom were also migrants from rural areas of the country. Between March and December 2020, approximately 250,000 Peruvians returned from the cities to their rural communities of origin. This was the first massive return process in the history of Peru, which occurred at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked ourselves: to which areas did the returnees go? who were they? and what socioeconomic impacts does this internal migration entail?
We spoke with our Adjunct Researcher Mauricio Espinoza. Together with Ricardo Fort, Senior Researcher at GRADE, and Alvaro Espinoza, Adjunct Researcher at GRADE, they published a study, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank, to analyze the spatial dynamics of internal migration in Peru to rural areas in the context of COVID-19. The study conducted more than 3,000 surveys to assess the socioeconomic conditions of returnees, and at the same time developed a methodology to project return migration flows at the national level. In addition, they identified possible conflicts in the use of natural resources and development opportunities that take advantage of the new human capital in a sustainable manner.
