Immigration to Colombia

[1] Colombia inherited from the Spanish Empire harsh rules against immigration, first in the Viceroyalty of New Granada and later in the Colombian Republic.

The Constituent Assembly of Colombia and the subsequent reforms to the national constitution were much more open to the immigrants and the economic aperture.

Colombia is experiencing large waves of immigration from other Latin American countries, Europe, East Asia, and North America over the past five years.

[5] The majority of the deaths of Native Americans were the cause of diseases such as measles and smallpox, which were spread by European settlers.

[8] In Bogotá, there is a small colony of thirty to forty families who emigrated as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War or because of different opportunities.

[9] In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on the majority of the ships until the country was able to train its own crews.

[10] SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the western hemisphere.

[16] According to the 2018 national census, 9.34% of Colombians are of full or parcial Black African ancestry, with the largest concentration in the department of Chocó, where they represent 82.1% of the population.

[citation needed] There is a large gap in knowledge of the Chinese diaspora in Colombia in the period from the beginning of the 20th century until 1970–1980.

The effect for the Chinese diaspora was the creation not only of political but also more differentiation between migrants and distinguished by locality of origin, language, and history of migration.

It can be assumed that the anti-immigrant atmosphere in many countries was the major cause of continued Chinese immigration to Colombia.

In fact, it is known that in the early 20th century, due to xenophobia in the United States, a large number of Chinese migrated to Colombia.

[citation needed] As a result, of the 5,600 people of Chinese origin reported in 1982 (Poston and Yu 1990) in the 1990s were only 3,400, most of whom live in Bogota, Barranquilla, Cali, Cartagena, Medellin, Santa Marta, Manizales, Cucuta, and Pereira.

All these movements flow of people around the world support the notion that the "Chinese diaspora" is far from staying in a country, take an identity, or "assimilate".

In the years prior to World War II, there was a second wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution from the Nazis.

Spanish descendants, a majority of which mixed to varying degrees with indigenous peoples over the centuries, form the bulk of the Colombian population.

Due to high unemployment in Spain, several hundreds of Spaniards have immigrated to Colombia for better working prospects in recent years (2008 onwards).

[3] The Italian immigrant population in Colombia, is mostly located in cities such as Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Montería, Cali, Medellin and Bogotá.

They traditionally settled as farmers or professional workers in the states of Boyacá and Santander, but also in Cali, Bogotá and Barranquilla.

One famous German immigrant of the 19th century was German-Jewish entrepreneur Leo Siegfried Kopp who founded the brewery Bavaria.

[40] In the first half of 20th century, Irish people arrived in Colombia for a new life and as missionaries to expand the Catholic faith in the country.

[41] There is an important French community in Colombia, mainly concentrated in the coastal cities of Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Santa Marta, as well as in Bogotá.

Contrary to common perceptions, the frequent Colombian surname Betancourt does not signal French descent but rather descent from the Canary Islands (Spain), where it is common since the islands were conquered and submitted by Frenchman Juan de Betancourt for the Spanish crown in the 16th century.

French surnames such as Lafaurie, Chaux, Lamouroux, Betancourt and many more are frequently deeply rooted in Colombian society.

Large populations of Venezuelans are found in Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla, Cartagena and Cúcuta.