Colombia Emigration and Immigration

Immigration

Immigration began to Colombia in 1499 with the Conquistadors.  The town of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darién, established in 1510 was one of the first settlements on mainland America.  Within the first hundred years of Colombia's settlement by the Spanish, 95% of the indigenous population died, mostly from newly introduced diseases.  In 1533, Cartegena was founded and soon became the hub for immigration to Colombia.  Immigration was tightly controlled by Spain, and most immigrants were Spanish, specifically, Andalusians in the largest numbers, then Basques (Basques settled largely in the Antioquia region), although Castilians were the most influential in the government.  

African Slavery

Cartagena was also the main trade center for slavery, beginning the very year it was founded (in 1533) although slaves were first brought in to Colombia in 1504. Between the 16th and first half of the 19th century, approximately 400,000 African slaves were brought to Nueva Granada (present day Colombia and Panama, as well as parts of Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Nicaragua) through the ports of Havanna, Veracruz, Buenos Aires, and Cartagena. Cartagena received more than 60% of the traffic destined for the Virreinato Peruano. Still, the relatively slow economic growth and development in Colombia may have contributed to overall less harsh and exploitative forms of slavery in many parts of Colombia than in the French and English sugar islands. For example, masters who treated their slaves cruelly were liable for punishment. In Colombia, a slave was able and allowed to testify in court on matters of maltreatment and other legalities, and often did so. However, the relative mildness of Colombian slavery was probably guided as much by pragmatic factors as ideological ones. In many areas, slaves constituted a substantial part of the total population, even outnumbering their masters, which prompted slave owners to treat slaves humanely to prevent revolt. Furthermore, the unpopulated hinterlands provided slaves with a fairly accessible escape route, which slave owners obviously wanted to prevent at all cost. In 1821 a free-birth law was enacted and in 1852 all slaves were emanciated. Thousands of documents related to the history of the slave trade in Latin America held by the National Archives of Colombia and Cuba are available online throught their websites. This is the link to the Colombian site: negrosyesclavos.archivogeneral.gov.co/portal/apps/php/indexes.kwe. All documents are in Spanish.

Today, 10.6% of the population identify as Afro-Colombians.

Emmigration

Emigration from Colombia is one of the largest in volume from Latin America. According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombian citizens currently permanently reside outside of Colombia. Other estimates, however, suggest that the actual number could exceed 4 million, or almost 10 percent of the country's population. During the years 1996-2000 (peaking in 2000) so many Colombians left due to violence and the economic downturn, that it became known as the Colombian diaspora. Many of those who moved were educated middle and upper middle-class Colombians; because of this, the Colombian diaspora can be referred to as a brain drain. However, significant numbers of poor Colombians have also been documented. The most common destination for emigration was the United States. In Europe, Spain has the largest Colombian community on the continent, followed by the Italy and United Kingdom. Many Colombians are also dispersed throughout the rest of Latin America. Mexico, Argentina and Chile received political refugees in the mid-to-late 20th century, and Colombian guest workers in the early 2000s.

See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_Colombia