Emigration from Colombia

The highest rates of emigration have been registered in the main urban centers of the interior zone of the country: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Bucaramanga, Pereira, Manizales, and Cúcuta.

Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and Chile received political refugees in the mid-to-late 20th century, and Colombian guest workers in the early 2000s.

Regions with significant populations Colombians living abroad—1.5 million of whom departed during the economic downturn between 1996 and 2002—have had a positive effect on the balance of payments thanks to remittances to family and friends at home.

[citation needed] But external migration to the United States or Europe has represented a definite loss of talent and energy because migrants to the developed world tend to be better educated and in the prime of working life.

[3] Some estimates would have roughly half the physicians trained in Colombia during certain years, at great expense to fellow Colombian taxpayers, now working in the United States.

[3] Several municipalities in the vicinity of Pereira in western Colombia, hard hit by troubles in the coffee industry and the competition of cheap Asian labor in garment exporting, exemplify the latter phenomenon.