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Panama Migration
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Squatter dwellings in San Miguedito
Courtesy Agency for International Development
Migration has played an increasingly significant role in the
lives of Panamanians and has followed a distinct pattern throughout
the twentieth century. Population movement has been into those
districts and provinces enjoying a period of economic prosperity,
typically associated with the canal. As the economic boom peters
out, the migrant population moves back to the primarily
agricultural districts, to be reabsorbed into subsistence farming
or small-scale businesses and services in the country's
predominantly rural interior. The pattern has been repeated several
times with the ebb and flow of economic activity. In the late
1980s, it remained to be seen what adaptations migrants would make
given the shrinking rural land base.
The 1911 census provides a baseline for population movements
throughout the century. At that time, the provinces of Chiriquí and
Panamá accounted for nearly 40 percent of the total population.
Chiriquí's growth was the result of migrants from Colombia in the
nineteenth century; Panamá's came as a result of the canal
construction begun just after the turn of the century. The central
provinces--Veraguas, Coclé, Los Santos, and Herrera (in order of
population)--accounted for slightly more than 40 percent of the
total. The entire region had been populated along the coasts since
the colonial era and had grown in response to increased demand for
foodstuffs in Panama City and Colón in the second half of the
nineteenth century. The decade following the census saw dramatic
population growth in response to the United States presence and the
building of the Panama Canal. The need to feed the massive numbers
of black Antillean laborers who came to work on the construction
project generated a boom in agriculture.
Subsequent censuses revealed a specific pattern of rural-rural
and rural-urban migration. Some rural districts of a province lost
population, while others even relatively close grew rapidly. The
pattern reversed itself during periods of economic stagnation.
Then, migrants retreated into subsistence agriculture in regions
that had enjoyed limited participation in the previous boom.
Between 1910 and 1920, for example, the Chepigana District in
Darién was in the midst of a boom and enjoyed a significant influx
of population, while the neighboring Pinogana District lost
population. Their roles were reversed in the following decade.
The 1920s represented such a period of stagnation. The regions
of highest growth in the previous decade grew much more slowly--if
they grew at all. Colón and Bocas del Toro were the most heavily
affected. Panamá Province continued to grow at rates slightly in
excess of the national average; nonetheless, a large number of
foreign workers left, as did a significant portion of the small
business owners who had provisioned them and who were ruined by the
decline in clientele.
Rural regions absorbed these surplus laborers and served as
centers of population growth throughout the 1920s. Some such as
Veraguas and Darién grew in excess of 5 percent annually during the
intercensal period. District capitals in predominantly rural
provinces tended to enjoy significant growth as well, probably as
a result of their administrative functions, and the rise of banana
plantations in Chiriquí attracted workers from throughout Central
America.
The pattern reversed again in the late 1930s and mid-1940s. The
immediate pre-World War II period as well as the war itself were
times of significant economic expansion for the country as a whole.
The province of Panamá headed the country in population growth, and
the entire western portion of the province was a region of economic
expansion. Colón, by contrast, lost in importance. Its annual rate
of increase, 1.44 percent, was barely half the national average.
The decline in Colón's fortunes reflected the centralization of
economic and administrative activity in Panama City. Furthermore,
Colón's importance as a port on the Atlantic diminished with the
construction of the Trans-isthmian Highway (also known as the Boyd-
Roosevelt Highway).
The economic expansion accompanying World War II eliminated
problems associated with the increase in large-scale agro-
enterprises in the interior. Although substantial numbers of small
farmers were displaced, they were readily absorbed by the demand
for labor in cities and the countryside. Even in the period of
economic contraction following the war, cities in predominantly
rural provinces enjoyed significant growth. The war fueled the
development of small-scale industrial and processing activities
throughout the country. The dimensions of this growth were such
that large numbers of rural youngsters--sons and daughters of small
farmers--remained in the provinces in which they were born rather
than migrating to Panama City or the Canal Zone.
World War II also saw Panama's last major influx of foreign
workers. Most of these workers left with the economic slowdown at
the war's end. As in previous periods of economic contraction,
increasing numbers of displaced migrants took refuge in subsistence
farming. The late 1940s was a time of growth for the rural regions
of the country.
Overall, population grew at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in
the 1950s; Panama was in the midst of a demographic transition as
birth rates remained high while death rates dropped. The press of
the population on the land base reached critical proportions.
Peasants, displaced by the spread of large-scale agro-enterprises
in the country, found it more and more difficult to find unoccupied
land to put into production. At the same time, rural-urban migrants
found it increasingly difficult simply to return home and resume
farming during periods of economic contraction.
The pressure on the land base was acute enough to precipitate
significant conflict over holdings in the 1950s and 1960s. In the
province of Panamá, peasants invaded and seized the land around
Gatun Lake as well as some regions of the districts of La Chorrera,
Capira, and Chaime. Although many of these squatters were
successful in maintaining their claim on the holdings, most
peasants in other parts of the country were not so fortunate. The
expansion of large cattle ranches in much of Los Santos and
Veraguas continued the migratory process begun earlier, and
peasants were pushed farther and farther along the agricultural
frontier.
Substantial numbers of these displaced peasants migrated to
less settled regions in Chiriquí, Los Santos, and Veraguas.
Likewise, banana plantations in Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro drew
significant numbers of migrants. The principal destination for much
of the rural populace, however, was Greater Panama City.
Nearly two-thirds of all migrants had as their destination the
heavily urban province of Panamá--a proportion that has remained
roughly constant since the 1950s. In terms of absolute numbers, Los
Santos and Veraguas were the major contributors to the migration
stream: together they accounted for one-third of all migrants. The
relatively depressed districts around Colón contributed large
numbers of migrants, as did a number of districts in Chiriquí and
Bocas del Toro. Based on rates of out-migration rather than
absolute numbers, Los Santos, Darién, and Coclé were the main
places of origin.
Within the province of Panamá, the greater metropolitan area of
Panama City attracted most migrants. The districts surrounding the
city averaged a growth rate of more than 10 percent per year in the
1960s and 1970s. Panama City played a significant role in the
migration patterns of virtually every other province in the
country. Over 90 percent of the migrants from Darién went there, as
did roughly 80 percent of those from Coclé, Colón, Los Santos, and
Veraguas. In the relatively prosperous mid-1960s to mid-1970s, most
migrants managed to find employment. Many joined the ranks of
peddlers and other small-scale self-employed individuals.
The manufacturing sector expanded significantly during the
1960s, resulting in a doubling of the industrial labor force. The
service sector--traditionally the country's most dynamic--was
fueled by the expansion of manufacturing as well as Panama's
pivotal position as a transit zone. The service sector absorbed
more than half the increase in the economically active population
and grew at a rate of more than 6 percent annually. For the city-
bound migrant, that meant jobs in public and domestic service and
construction. Nevertheless, some observers expected the rate of
migration to the metropolitan region to decline with economic
reverses in the 1980s and the increase in opportunities in other
regions, such as the Cerro Colorado copper project in Chiriquí.
Overall, the migration stream in the 1970s was composed of
three components: rural-urban migrants (accounting for more than
half of all migrants), urban-urban migrants (roughly one-quarter of
all migrants), and urban-rural migrants (nearly 20 percent of those
questioned about their place of residence five years earlier had
been living in a city). The exact proportion and significance of
urban-rural migration were difficult to judge. Approximately half
the migrants were former residents of the smaller cities of the
interior and presumably had left their farms for seasonal work in
a nearby city or to attend school. Nearly one-third of these return
migrants had lived in Panama City and its environs. Many were
specialized workers; others were peasants unable to find permanent
employment in the city; still others were children sent home to be
cared for by kin.
Those people who migrated were, as a whole, young. In the 1970s
nearly 75 percent of them were under 35 years of age; among rural-
urban migrants, the percentage rose to more than 80 percent.
School-age migrants represented a significant group in the
migration stream. Although many simply accompanied their parents on
moves, a significant minority were sent by their rural families for
education in nearby cities. Men formed the majority among rural-
urban migrants to Colón; women, however, accounted for a slight
majority of all rural-urban migrants. This tendency was most marked
in migration of women to cities in the interior, but was also found
among migrants to Panama City. In general, observers attributed the
high rate of female migration to the metropolitan region to the
opportunities for employment available for young women there.
Unemployment was lower among urban females than among their rural
counterparts, whereas the reverse was true for males.
Data as of December 1987
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