Immigrants in Colombia are less poor and get more jobs – Sectors – Economy

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Oecd) in its most recent report, ‘Immigrant Integration Indicators 2023’, currently there are more than 2,403,000 immigrants in Colombia, of which one in three are children under 14 years of agemore than half are women (51 percent) and only 1 percent are older than 65.

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Although in the early 2010s the country had a small population of people born abroad, in recent years it has shown a considerable growth of people who have ever emigrated from their country of birth to their current country of residence. This behavior, according to the entity, is related to the increase in the migratory flow from Venezuela.

In fact, in five years the population of those born abroad multiplied by 20 in Colombia, according to the OECD.

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According to the report, the country with the largest number of immigrants is the United States, which has about 45,273,000; Germany follows, with 13,561,000; United Kingdom, with 9,482,000, France, with 8,571,000, and Canada, Australia and Spain also stand out.

Labor market of the immigrant population in Colombia

Beyond the quantity, the report seeks to measure the integration of this population in the different countries. In the Colombian case, it is detailed that by 2021 the employment rate for immigrants reached 66 percent, 6 percentage points more than the employment rate for Colombians, which at that time was 60 percent.

These data may indicate that Venezuelan immigrants, who leave their country mainly to seek better opportunities and income in relation to those found in their land, may end up willing to accept more precarious positions than those accepted by Colombians.

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The situation is replicated when analyzed by sex. While foreign women had a job occupation that was around 49 percent, for Colombians it was 48 percent. Similarly, foreign men had an employment rate of 83 percent, which for Colombians was 74 percent.

Leaving this aside, this behavior of the labor market is replicated in other member countries, such as New Zealand, which has the highest employment rate for immigrants with 81 percent., while for its natives the figure reaches 77 percent. Similarly, there is evidence of a similarity in the unemployment rate, since it is higher for New Zealanders (4 percent) than for foreigners (3 percent).

Precariousness and poverty, a factor that remains in immigrants

myhe report highlights that the life of immigrants continues to be marked by precariousness and poverty in most of the member countries, however, in the Colombian case the situation changes.

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To determine this factor, the OECD uses the concept of relative poverty, which measures the level of poverty in relation to the average income or wealth of a given society. In this sense, the disadvantage for the Colombian is greater, since, relative poverty in 2021 for immigrants over 16 years of age was 33 percent, while for Colombians the figure rose to 34 percent.

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The behavior was replicated only in three other OECD countries. These are Chile, where foreigners have 17 percent and natives 28 percent, Portugal with 15 percent versus 18 percent, and finally Slovakia, with 12 percent. for immigrants compared to 13 percent of the native population.

Overcrowding and education, factors in which the Colombian is not surpassed

Regarding overcrowding, the situation in which the number of people in a dwelling or house exceeds the space or rooms available, two thirds of the immigrant population (69 percent) suffer from this problem, while only 36 percent of Colombian natives experience it.

Finally, in terms of education, the OECD highlights that by sharing the same language and having relatively high levels of formal education, the integration of immigrants in the country has been less complicated, compared to other countries such as Finland and Turkey.

In detail, of the 2,403,000 immigrants in the country, 10 percent have a very low level of education, 35 percent are low, and 22 percent are high. By comparison, 22 percent of the Colombian population had very low levels, 38 percent with low levels, and 28 percent with high formal education.

Panorama of school dropout in migrantsAs of November 2022, more than half a million children and adolescents from Venezuela had enrolled in the Colombian educational system.

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