tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post6488483890181598435..comments2024-02-21T05:16:22.788-05:00Comments on Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog: Democracy and Immigrants in EcuadorGreg Weekshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15765114859595124082noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post-13311304120934538582010-03-06T13:44:40.774-05:002010-03-06T13:44:40.774-05:00If Ecuadorians are becoming less tolerant, and if ...If Ecuadorians are becoming less tolerant, and if the hypothesis holds, then it means that those particularly Ecuadorians who are changing their minds likely do not hold strong democratic values. It doesn't mean people are becoming more authoritarian.<br /><br />As for the other questions, they sound interesting--migration within Latin America is understudied in general.Greg Weekshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15765114859595124082noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21674624.post-21147767528412609542010-03-06T11:52:55.655-05:002010-03-06T11:52:55.655-05:00I don't have a sense that Ecuadorians differen...I don't have a sense that Ecuadorians differentiate between Colombians who come for economic reasons and those who come as political refugees (and we do have the two different groups here; there are Colombians who have been in Ecuador since the 1960's, and who are well established businessmen). <br /><br />I do have the sense that Ecuadorians are becoming less tolerant of Colombians simply because there are more of them, and because they're seen as competing for jobs and as a significant factor in the growing crime rate in country. I should say that I think it's reasonable to think that Colombians would compete for jobs; I haven't seen any research that shows that the presence of Colombians leads to increased delinquency.<br /><br />I've read the Vanderbilt studies and the questions about authoritarian attitudes and tolerance. The figures seems to show some correlation, but frankly, I'm not sure why that correlation exists. As I say, my sense is that Ecuadorians are becoming less tolerant of Colombian presence here, but does that mean that Ecuadorians are becoming more authoritarian? I don't see that myself, that is, I don't perceive Ecuadorians and Ecuadorian society becoming palpably more authoritarian. I think it's because they're just seeing the numbers of Colombians grow and they're getting tired of it.<br /><br />Btw, Mitch S. and his colleagues have never treated what I consider to be the more interesting immigration question of Peruvians entering Ecuador in growing numbers to work in the southern Provinces. In raw numbers, the Peruvian wave is much, much smaller than the Colombian advent, but in percentage increases, it's much larger (off of a smaller base, of course). The Peruvians are being welcomed in large part, because ironically, they're filling a labor vacuum created down south by the large scale emigration of Ecuadorians to Europe and the U.S. looking for better paying jobs...<br /><br />Finally, before I forget it, Colombian immigrants are beginning to cause resentment and social stresses in Panama and Costa Rica, but I don't know if anyone's taken a look at exactly what's happening...Tambopaxihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978665666431987347noreply@blogger.com