Internal migratory movements of the Central District and San Pedro Sula in Honduras, 1988-2013

Abstract

The study of internal migration in the country has been relegated by the notoriety that international migration has had. The data shows that in Honduras there is a tendency to increase the number of internal migrants in the last six decades, but more recently, from the middle of that period there is a decrease in the proportion of migrants. This research with a descriptive character, studies the internal migration phenomenon based on census data at the level of the Minor Administrative Division (DAME), which in this case is the Municipality. It should be noted that the amount of absolute and recent migration at the DAME (Municipality) level exceeds the levels estimated at the DAM (Department) level, the geographic level is
lower there are greater chances of displacement. If there is a greater similarity in recent migrations than in absolute migrations at the level of DAM and DAME, product of the use of a reference period closer to the date of enumeration. In Honduras, the two municipalities with the greatest migratory attractiveness, absolute and recent, have been the Central District and San Pedro Sula. However, the migratory primacy of these two municipalities has changed dramatically as they have become divisions with recent negative migration balances, especially in San Pedro Sula (the municipality with the highest negative recent migratory balance in the country), and to a lesser extent, the Central District. , although both receive and send strong
contingents of migrants among them, in turn they have exchanges with DAME near and far.