Migración interna y cambios metropolitanos

Migration drawn of eighteen metropolitan areas in six Latin American countries are estimated by processing census microdata from last two decades of the 2oth century and the first of the 21st century. Two geographical definitions are used – one of them called “bounded” and the other called “broader” – in order to quantify the effect that changes in geographical definition of the city has on migration estimates. Moreover, it also distinguishes between migration interchanges with the surroundings and migration interchanges with the rest of the country, in order to better understand the spatial (de)concentration processes and the emergence of new metropolitan shapes. The results indicate that net outmigration predominates among megacities, but net inmigration dominates the rest of the cities, suggesting persistent advantages and opportunities among the latter. The definition changes affect, sometimes decisively, migration rates. And migration is associated with specific spatial processes, instead of general processes, because in some cases drives genuine deconcentration but in other cases drives concentrated deconcentration and in a few cases drives concentration or configuration of new forms of centrality.