From circulatory to neutral migration places: new patterns of population mobility in Brazil from 1995 to 2010

Everton E. C. Lima, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Fernando Braga, Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais

From the 1980s, Brazil saw a decrease in the intensity of its internal population movements associated with the rural exodus and the occupation of the Brazilian agricultural frontiers. This new background has led experts to study more about the emergence of new migration patterns. In this context, we propose a method for classifying the municipalities in Brazil according to their characteristics of migration, as shown in the data now available from the 2010 National Brazilian Census. We apply a multivariate factor analysis for data reduction and, afterwards, a cluster analysis was carried out on a set of selected variables that describe how the municipalities in the country are articulated with the Brazilian migration network. Our analysis indicates the existence of new categories of territories that go beyond the classical definitions of attractive and repulsive regions and, thus, new kinds of population movements are emerging in the contemporaneous Brazilian society.