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The Composition and Distribution of Ethnic Groups in Belize: Immigration and Emigration Patterns, 1980-1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Louis A. Woods ,
Joseph M. Perry  and
Jeffrey W. Steagall
Louis A. Woods
Affiliation:
University of North Florida
Joseph M. Perry
Affiliation:
University of North Florida
Jeffrey W. Steagall
Affiliation:
University of North Florida
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In the history of human migration, rarely has a situation arisen in which simultaneous voluntary immigration and emigration flows have dramatically transformed the ethnic composition of an independent country. Belize since its independence in 1981 provides an example of such an unusual combination of circumstances. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, anecdotal evidence began to accumulate suggesting that the country's population was undergoing profound structural changes that included realignment of its settlement patterns and alteration of its ethnic mix.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , 1997 , pp. 63 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

∗

We wish to express our appreciation to the Division of Sponsored Research and Training at the University of North Florida for financial support for fieldwork in Belize and to the anonymous LARR reviewers for their helpful comments. Portions of earlier versions of this article were presented at several conferences: the Congreso Internacional de Geógrafos Latinamericanistas in Tegucigalpa, 3–6 January 1996; the conference of the Southern Economic Association in New Orleans, 18–21 November 1995; the Studies on Belize Conference at the Interdisciplinary Conference in Belize City, 24–27 October 1995; and the Interdisciplinary Conference on Belize in Jacksonville, Florida, 3–4 March 1995. We wish to thank the discussants for their informative comments. Any errors that remain are ours.

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