Making migration an opportunity for Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a net immigration in a region with high emigration rates. Immigrants represent 11% of the population aged 15 and over and are mainly of working age and low educated. The vast majority of them are from Nicaragua, but more recent flows are also coming from other countries in the region and the United States. Migrant men have high employment rates, but migrant women have serious difficulties accessing the labour market. Informality is a serious concern for migrants and is linked to irregular migrant status for many of them. Recent policy changes aimed to regularise the situation of migrants, but such efforts are difficult to implement in the context of high informal employment. The 2010 Migration Law and the subsequent Comprehensive Migration Policy provide the right framework for migration, but implementation challenges remain.