Recovery attractive metropolitan migration in the period 2004-2009: exogenous or endogenous factors?

Two issues related to the trends of localization and spatial mobility of the Chilean population, are examined. The first concerns the loss in recent years of the migratory attractiveness registered in the Metropolitan Region and in the Metropolitan Area of Greater Santiago, which could ease or reverse as a result of structural processes that strengthen the role of the metropolis in global and national development, and also as a consequence of adverse circumstances facing the economies of regions which had lately become a migratory alternative for Santiago's inhabitants. The second issue concerns the well-documented process of peripheral expansion, the "suburbanization" of the upper social stratum and the depopulation of downtown areas, which could tend to abate due to a number of factors, among which include increasing costs and commuting times, renewed housing options offered in the "East End" and public policies aimed at promoting living downtown and surrounding areas. The trends of regional, metropolitan and communal migratory attractiveness are measured using census micro data and the CASEN survey, which has incorporated a migration module since 2006. The main findings of the empirical analysis, which is to be considered preliminary and exploratory, focused on the new evidence offered by the CASEN 2009 survey for the 2004-2009 period, tend to support, with nuances in some cases, these hypotheses, although further detailed studies would be required to establish more solid conclusions.