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402 - Exiled ‘brains’ under-employed
April 2012
Who are the Latino-American migrants? What do they do in their host country? The new MICAL observatory( 1), led by IRD researchers, enables the day-to-day study of the movements of this diaspora across the world. Thanks to this data, sociologists are able to describe the massive exile of ‘brains’ that took place in the first half of the 2000s in Latin America. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of expatriate graduates doubled, and today has reached over 3 million. It’s a loss that may be damaging in the country of origin, but can also represent a generalised loss of knowledge: these exiles very often end up under-employed. The percentage of engineers, researchers and other high grades working at an under-qualified level has greatly increased as a result. This was the case in 2006, for example, for three quarters of Bolivian and Ecuadorian migrants
Today the crisis that is currently affecting Spain is modifying or even inverting the migratory trends. A return to the new Latin-American eldorados is increasingly being observed. The consequences of this on the graduates' situation should be monitored closely.
390 - The Brazilian rainforest: caught between biodiversity and business
December 2011
Brazil is exporting more and more agricultural produce: soya beans and beef in particular, but also corn, rice and sugar. Taken together, these exports represent half of Brazil’s total today. The increase in the export of commodities brings both a higher degree of economic dependency and a threat to the Amazon rainforest, as outlined by an IRD geographer and his Brazilian counterparts ( 1). Agricultural produce is actually the cause of almost all deforestation in Brazil, where 750,000 km² of forest have disappeared — and 80% of that was converted into grazing land for cattle. Recently, the increase of single-crop farming, especially of soya beans, has pushed herds further and further into forested areas, and so accelerated the process of deforestation.
These studies demonstrate the dangers of economic growth that depends on exporting agricultural produce, which may be appealing but is not sustainable.
382 - The scars of slavery
September 2011
The diaspora of Afro-descendants in Mexico and Central America takes on many guises, as reflected in names used such as Colonial Blacks, Afro-Antilleans, Garifuna. Status and levels of social recognition and integration are highly diverse and this distinguishes the countries of this region from the rest of the Latin-American continent. Researchers from the IRD and their partners( 1) involved in the programmes AFRODESC and EURESCL( 2) are studying the historical construction of these communities, which developed from successive waves of migrations, and of their identities.
Three hundred years of slavery, from the 16th to 19th Centuries, have left their scars. After abolition, there was exclusion, which drove descendants of slaves to migrate to the major centres of employment around the Caribbean rim. Now they represent a second diaspora and experience persisting inequality and stigmatization. Unlike Brazil and Colombia, symbols of multiculturalism, the “Black question” in Mexico and Central America has not attracted the strong interest of politicians and researchers.
364 - The paradoxes of quinoa
January 2011
In 15 years, the quinoa producers of the high Bolivian plateaux have made the Salar de Uyuni region, semi-desert lands where harsh frost prevails for more than 250 days per year, the world’s top exporter of this pseudocereal*. Leading product of the fair trade and organic food movements, the “Incan rice” has been experiencing a boom in production since the 1980s.
However, although its success helps avoid the need for thousands of families of the Andean Altiplano to make a permanent exodus to the cities or abroad, it is jeopardizing the sustainability of the agricultural system. Extension of the quinoa fields aggravates the agro-climatic risks, increases pressure on natural resources, exacerbates disputes over access to land and is disturbing relations within communities. IRD researchers and their partners( 1) in the EQUECO programme( 2) have revealed paradoxes concerning quinoa and its development.
The Bolivian producers are now aware of the vulnerability of their source of revenue and are consequently seeking to revive the collective management of local resources with a view to ensuring the sustainability of their agroecosystem.
364 - The paradoxes of quinoa
January 2011
In 15 years, the quinoa producers of the high Bolivian plateaux have made the Salar de Uyuni region, semi-desert lands where harsh frost prevails for more than 250 days per year, the world’s top exporter of this pseudocereal*. Leading product of the fair trade and organic food movements, the “Incan rice” has been experiencing a boom in production since the 1980s.
However, although its success helps avoid the need for thousands of families of the Andean Altiplano to make a permanent exodus to the cities or abroad, it is jeopardizing the sustainability of the agricultural system. Extension of the quinoa fields aggravates the agro-climatic risks, increases pressure on natural resources, exacerbates disputes over access to land and is disturbing relations within communities. IRD researchers and their partners( 1) in the EQUECO programme( 2) have revealed paradoxes concerning quinoa and its development.
The Bolivian producers are now aware of the vulnerability of their source of revenue and are consequently seeking to revive the collective management of local resources with a view to ensuring the sustainability of their agroecosystem.
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