Migration and Indigenous Communities in the Southern States of Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico

Globalization has increased the mobility of labor, product of lower fertility rates and working age populations in developed nations that creates a demand for migrant workers to sustain national economic growth. According to the United Nations Population Fund in 2010, three percent of the world's population lived outside their country of origin. Migration is an important force in development and it also has become an important factor in social change processes. Perceived as a force that can contribute to development, migration has become a focus of state-level policy-making planning policies creating a growing interest in the political and economic consequences of migration for both receiving and sending communities. This paper offers an overview of the different factors that are leading to migration out of Oaxaca and Chiapas, and the consequences to local indigenous societies. The paper also presents viable existing alternatives to rural development that have been developed by local small-scale farmers that can help reduce the massive exodus of people and consequently destruction of communities.