'Buscar mejor ambiente': migratie naar, uit en langs een kleine stad in Costa Rica

Subsistence farmers in Costa Rica colonized the research area of Perez Zeledon in the first half of this century. A few decades later, most of their offspring had relocated to the regional capital, San Isidro. They preferred the environment of the small urban center to that of the countryside. Nowadays, however, the metropolitan environment of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and even New Jersey, USA, hold greater attraction for the young people. These migrants constitute the subject of the present study. The role of the small town of San Isidro in the migration processes in Costa Rica is examined, particularly the town's role vis-a-vis the surrounding rural source area. The city is proved to be an important way-station in rural-urban and urban-urban migration. The most important inflow is from the rural areas and the most important outflow is directed at large urban centres. The actual dynamics of migration at work complicate the process, for instance the migration flow which bypasses San Isidro. The inflow, outflow and bypass are undertaken by distinct groups of migrants, differentiated by demographic and social economic characteristics, as well as motives.