ABSTRACT
The extent and pattern of migration in Chile have been largely determined by changes in Chile’s insertion in the world capitalist system, the over-all development of the productive forces, the land tenure system, social and technical relations of production, state policy and, of course, the rate of population growth. It is crucial to study the hacienda system, its transformation and relationship to the internal and external peasant enterprises, to understand the dynamics of agrarian change and rural migration. Before embarking on a more detailed analysis, it may be helpful to present an over-all picture of rural migration by region between 1865 and 1970. In the late 1840s new export markets opened up for Chilean wheat. The model of capital accumulation based on the “easy phase” of import-substitution industrialisation entered into crisis during the late 1950s. The government’s economic policy is shaping a new process of socio-economic differentiation by orienting agriculture to exports.
