Immigration to Costa Rica
Although most people enter the country to seek better employment opportunities, some immigrants have been involved in criminal activities.
However, the government has also initiated programs to promote economic prosperity for the poorest immigrant populations, also hailing from Nicaragua.
Non-Polish European migration dates back to practically the independence from Spain but was generally well received.
Records of the time show Chinese migrants as the most affected by prejudice especially from government official and the first anti-Chinese laws were enacted as far back as the 1910s.
[4] In 1903 President Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra enacted one of the first decrees forbidding non-White immigration and explicitly stating that migration from Asians, Blacks, Gypsies, Arabs and Turks was not allowed.
[4] Although these laws were common in Latin America at the time, and Costa Rica's government eventually became the lead force in its abolishment.
During the second half of the 20th century and to this date Costa Rica receives numerous waves of Latin American migrants from all the region, but Nicaraguans are by far the higher group among immigrant population encompassing 74.6% of the immigrant population,[5] followed by Colombians and Americans (immigrants in general are 9% of the population) making ethnic Nicaraguans and binational Nicaraguan-Costa Rican citizens one of the most notorious ethnic minorities in Costa Rica outnumbering other groups like African-Costa Ricans.
[5][4] The issue was one of the main topics of the 2002 election and was again important for the 2018's campaign with right-wing politicians like Otto Guevara quoting Donald Trump as an inspiration[6] and calling for harsher migratory laws and eliminating the citizenship by birth in the Constitution.
[7] Far-right ultra-conservative National Restoration Party, that held an important role in the 2018 presidential election, also holds anti-migration positions.
[8][9] The largest immigrant communities are from Nicaragua (74.6%), Colombia (4.3%), the United States (4.1%), Panama (2.9%) and El Salvador (2.4%).
[1] Many Europeans have immigrated to Costa Rica in recent years, especially Spaniards, Bulgarians, Russians, Ukrainians, Swiss and Swedish.
A second wave occurred during Argentina's economic crisis (1999-2002), when many Argentine professionals decided to migrate to Costa Rica.
Many work in tourism and are residents on the coast, near popular beaches while others live in the cities such as San José and Santa Ana.
During 1859-1863 under the administration of José María Montealegre, laws were enacted that prohibited the immigration of blacks and Asians, in an effort to preserve Costa Rica for European settlement.
[18] Later, "a Chinese colony" began to form in that area, founded by Joseph Chen Apuy, an immigrant from Zhongshan, Guangdong, who arrived in 1873.
There were new infrastructure projects, and existing personal networks between Germany and Costa Rica helped to increase immigration.
As of December 2016, the Indian community in Costa Rica consists of 250 residents,[23] primarily employed in the country's IT industry.
In February 1887, the American railroad entrepreneur, Minor Cooper Keith, had four hundred men working on a new line, but needed more labor.
In October of the same year, following unsuccessful attempts to persuade commissioners in Italy, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, Keith traveled to London to arrange the import of Italian workers.
For the construction of the Atlantic Railroad, Henry Meiggs Keith, an American hired by the Costa Rican government, insisted on utilizing "black" (later known as Afro-American) workers for clearing the forest and building the railroad tracks, and in 1872 the first group of Jamaicans entered the country.
These Jamaicans and their descendants would become the main inhabitants of the Caribbean region of the country, thereby establishing a culture that was unique within Costa Rica.
Two large Jamaican migrations occurred; firstly, during the railroad construction era, and then in the next century, for the banana plantations owned by the United Standard Fruit Company.
The waves of migration from Mexico to Costa Rica started in 1970s, as people were attracted to its stable democracy, mild climate and political stability.
According to the census of 2012, 4,285 Mexicans were living in Costa Rica from Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Baja California and Mexico City.
This migration is influenced by a history of authoritarian rule, economic disparities, and political unrest in Nicaragua; the intensification of these factors increased under Ortega's presidency which has seen "over 200,000 citizens forced into exile due to persecution by the Nicaraguan dictatorship".
[28] Many Nicaraguans have settled in the northern zone of Costa Rica, a region integral to the national food supply.
It's important to note that Nicaraguan migrants historically have contributed significantly to various local economies, especially in agriculture and domestic work.
After independence, the governors were interested in populating the territories with white workers, preferably imported from Europe.
The events in Catalonia in the same time period prompted many Catalans to migrate to Costa Rica, becoming in a few years a thriving and influential community in San José that persists today.
According to the census of 2012, there are about 3,886 Venezuelans in Costa Rica that live mainly in San José, in the areas of Escazú and Santa Ana.
