Internal migration in the lake region of the Araucanía: approaches for its study

Abstract

Nowadays, within the social sciences, migration studies are an important part of scientific research. In Chile, the internal migrations that took place during the 20th century were, in a certain sense, constitutive of the current urban and rural configuration of the country. This paper deals with a relatively new phenomenon in the study of migration in the country, corresponding to migration by amenity in the framework of migration to mountainous landscapes in southern Chile, especially in the territorial space of the Araucanía region, also known as the lake area. To this end, this research focuses on developing a theoretical review of the current state of the concept of amenity migration, with the aim of finding a conceptual convergence that allows us to analyse, through secondary data, the migration patterns present in the lake area of the Araucanía region. From the analysis of secondary data, gaps in economic income and schooling levels between migrants and the population born in the communities studied are evident. Taking into account the characteristics of migrants in terms of their socio-economic conditions and the activities to be developed in the host place is decisive when projecting the economic, social, cultural and spatial transformations, processes and effects of migration by amenity.