Recent immigration in Uruguay: a new migration pattern and its challenges in terms of integration

Summary:

This paper aims to analyze in depth the characteristics of the recent immigration in Uruguay in socio-demographic terms and the level and processes of socioeconomic integration of these immigrants.

The socioeconomic integration of recent immigrants to the Uruguayan society is analyzed through the study of their economic and educational participation, the access to public services and their location within the territory. With this purpose, a set of integration indicators were created in an attempt to show the following dimensions: a) Access to health, b) Access to education, c) Access to labor market, d) Access to housing, e) Spatial distribution and f) Type of family arrangement. Indicators are disaggregated by gender, regions of origin and age structure.
Likewise, the social integration of recent immigrants is addressed from a qualitative perspective, with the purpose to understand this process from the point of view of these individuals.

The methodological approach used was the “combined methods” design. The source of quantitative data was the 2011 Population Census. For the qualitative analysis information from in depth interviews to recent immigrants were used.

Keywords: immigration / integration / demography