Why Do Colombians Emigrate? A Departmental Analysis Based on the 2005 Census

The 2005 Census brings, for the first time, detailed information about Colombian migration flows. This paper analyses information related to Colombians living abroad, and examines the main causes of emigration. With this purpose, it calculates the emigration rate by department and uses an econometric study that differentiates between structural, cyclical and violence-related variables. The paper concludes that less-poor and better-prepared people from the most troubled departments have a higher propensity to migrate