Sustainable Agropastoral Systems on Marginal Lands-Bolivia

II Research (continued)

Activity II: Local perceptions of problems and evaluation

a. Migration

Problem Statement and Approach.

The purpose of this activity is to elicit information on perceived problems, migration being one. This is necessary in assessing labor availability in the short and medium term. This general activity consisted in this year of understanding the migration process from the perspective of families that have migrated and returned for the holidays, to understand the reasons for pull or push migration.

The 1992 national census revealed that in the great majority of Altiplano provinces population had decreased since 1976. Our experience in San José Llanga and Santiago de Machaca also indicated that population had diminished since the beginning of the eighties, and that several families were in constant movement between the community and other regions. Obviously these trends raise important questions: What are the principal factors that explain rural immigration? Is it mainly due to "push" (drought, lack of land etc), or "pull" (wages increase, new job opportunities, etc.) factors? What are the impacts of migration on the Agropastoral systems? What is the contribution of livestock to capital accumulation and to the ability of households to persist in their communities or to migrate?

In order to answer these questions we originally planned to: (1) interview families that were living in San José and Santiago that had migrated during some years in the past; (2) Visit two or three urban centers where the majority of families from San José had migrated and established themselves, and interview a sample of these. San José migrants tend to travel to regions that are located far away from La Paz, close to the South border with Argentina. The second part required additional funds which were not possible with the budget situation faced by the SR-CRSP. The following results are based exclusively on the interviews made with families who actually reside in San José and Santiago de Machaca, and with a few families who live outside and visited to participate in celebrations and look after their lands and animals. This activity is lead by C. Jetté.

Progress.

Andean migration is a very ancient practice. Current migration follows somewhat similar patterns to prehispanic ones, described as "vertical control" of different ecological zones. Migrants control for many years some resources in the community where they were born and have kin relationships. Family ties are required to cultivate with the comunarios. This ensures control and access by both migrants and community residents to a wider variety of resources in different places. Extensive migration was also found during the colonial period as a result of the mita system, an enforced labor tax, which required indigenous people to leave their homes to work in the mines or at other tasks.

During the last decades high rates of rural immigration have been associated with an accelerated expansion of population and with a rapid growth of the main urban centers (Santa Cruz, La Paz and Cochabamba). Whereas population in the rural areas of the Altiplano seem to have been relatively stable during the last century, increase slowly during the first half of this century, and more rapidly between the fifties and the seventies. This population growth took place in the context of a development model that concentrated investments in the cities and in the eastern lowlands. Thus we have here two fundamental reasons for the intensification of the migration processes: in many Andean rural areas resources are too limited to sustain more people, and new opportunities are concentrated in the cities and in the new agricultural frontier in the lowlands and in the Yungas (where coca leaf is cultivated).

The fact that population has tended to decrease in the Central Altiplano may be interpreted positively as a result of the need to reestablish the equilibrium between people and resources. However several persons that came back to the community after living outside a few years told us that it had been difficult to find jobs in the cities because the sectors where they intended to work were too crowded. There are many indications that the moderate rate of economic growth that Bolivia has maintained during the last decade is far from being sufficient to reduce substantially the high rates of underemployment.

Two aspects of rural migration should be distinguished: (1) the massive migration of young people above fifteen years old; (2) the migration of families who have been living in rural areas for several years. Rural youths aspirations have been discussed in detail in last year's annual report. All the young people interviewed, both men and women expressed their wish to leave the community for at least some years, before or soon after being married. As already reported, in the estancia Okata in Santiago de Machaca there were no individuals between 19 and 30 years old. In San José the situation is not as critical but there are only few households headed by young under 25. The incidence of migration among young men is especially high, with the community census showing that women between 14 and 25 outnumber males in the same age group by nearly 2 to 1. In all the region the age pyramid narrows significatively above the 14-19 age group. This calls attention to the fact that new technologies that rely on intensive use of labor could be difficult to diffuse because households cannot count on the participation of young adults.

The community cannot absorb a majority of the five or six children of an average household family. In Santiago de Machaca, where land is mainly communally owned, heads of household expressed clearly that they expect (and will be satisfied with) one of their children to return and take on responsibility for the family resources when the parents age. In San José, where land is unevenly distributed among families, some households with large land holdings could divide their land between some of their sons -land is bequeathed much more to sons than daughters- without jeopardizing the land resource base for future household families. However there are several that could not do this.

What are the factors that influence young people's decision to return to the community? Several persons indicated that they returned because they did not want to leave their aging parents alone. If the father has a good amount of resources (land and animals) the incentives to return are stronger. In the same manner, improvements in life quality in the community could make returning more appealing. On the other hand, it also depends on how successful the sons have been outside the community: the length of their studies, the profession or occupation they hold, income levels and prosperity, etc. Finally if the spouse is from the same region as opposed to a different ecological and social environment, it will be easier to return.

Migration of families that have been established in the community for several years responds to different types of motivations. Before mentioning these, it is important to stress that migration is carefully planned and could take several years, and no decision is irreversible. The migrants never sell or transfer definitively all their land and their animals when they leave, and maintain their property rights for many years. An old couple interviewed who left San José eighteen years ago, comes back to the community once or twice a year to look after the sheep he still owns. When asked why he kept these animals, the response was that now there are many people involved in the same business they are in (purchase of clothes in La Paz to sell them in a border town), and that maybe things could turn bad in the future (insurance against risks in the market).

There are families in San José who migrate because they do not have access to enough land appropriate to grow alfalfa. "Success" during the last years in San José has been associated with dairy production, and alfalfa is a basic requirement to raise dairy cows. It is possible to rent alfalfa fields for one year, but it is very difficult to buy the land. According to the interviews, people with alfalfa fields that migrate from the community prefer to leave these to their parents rather than sell. This is one of the most valuable resources in case they decide to return. It is no surprise that the estancia in San José with the largest population decrease is Espiritu Willke, the one with less access to irrigated land and farthest away from the dairy center. Contrary to other regions in the Andes, San José has few households with a member working regularly outside the community who sends remittances to compensate for the lack of agricultural resources. This does take place in Espiritu Willke, where a male head of household works for a relative in a car repair shop in La Paz.

Some families in San José are better endowed and plan to migrate. One of the most common reasons is uncertainty about the climate which results in high yield variability. During the 1993-94 production year, several migrants passing by San José who said that they would return if the climate was as good as it was that year. Another frequent reason mentioned is the wish to guarantee a better education for the children. The quality of education in rural areas is considered bad and San José has schooling only up to 8th grade. Several families send their older children (preferably boys) to schools in other towns where they have relatives. The fundamental goal of migrants is to improve their socioeconomic conditions by living in a town that has electricity, transport and other services, and opportunities for higher incomes.

It is interesting to note that during the years in San José three households witnessed migrated to Patacamaya of three households that went to Patacamaya, the closest town 17 kilometers on the main road connecting La Paz with the Chilean border and other important Bolivian cities. It appears that these households have been successful in establishing a small clothing factory of wool sweaters and leather jackets (with sheep hides). These migrants can easily maintain their relationships with San José, and met some who wish to install a business in San José when electricity is available to the community. As already mentioned in last year's report, many young people in the community, men and women alike, aspire to become tailors. A thirty year-old man who is one of the most productive dairy cattle breeders, left his animals with his wife and young children during most of 1994 to work as an apprentice in a windbreak factory in Cochabamba. This farmer produces around 20 litters of milk a day but the producer considers that to meet his needs the production should be forty. He does not have enough forage resources for this. Other dairy producers have sent their daughters to technical schools in La Paz and Cochabamba to become seamstresses.

For migrants livestock is fundamental in raising capital to establish a new business, in providing food (meat), and a regular source of cash when exploring new avenues. Data collection to date indicates that the capital/surplus generated flows out of the community. The 1992-93 economic survey showed that only 16 percent of the families interviewed mentioned receiving remittances from non-resident family members. Meanwhile, about a third of the capital generated through cattle sales was invested in either small business, land purchases or house construction outside of San José. A similar pattern has been identified in Santiago de Machaca. It must be stressed however, that remittances have probably been underestimated in the survey. All the people interviewed, who had migrated confirmed that they regularly send money and food to their aging parents while they live out of San José. In fact, the levels of income reported by some old people in the survey were extremely low.