Indigenous routes: a framework for understanding indigenous migration

Why do indigenous people migrate? This paper examines reviews the major causes and circumstances of indigenous peoples’ migration and argues that modern migration of these peoples is both diverse and complex.

A widespread view of indigenous communities freezes them in time and space, as static groups, deeply rooted in their territories and customs, and reluctant to accommodate change. Increasingly, however, indigenous individuals, families and groups are leaving their long-held territories as part of the phenomenon of global migration. These migrations go beyond the customary seasonal and cultural movements of particular groups. Migrant indigenous peoples include individuals moving to more economically developed centres to seek opportunities, displaced communities and groups removed by force.

This paper provides a framework of the migratory experiences of indigenous peoples, as this topic remains relatively unexplored. The paper focuses on:

• internal and international migration of indigenous peoples
• transborder indigenous migration
• migration effects on indigenous peoples
• indigenous migrants’ lives

The paper concludes by arguing that by depicting indigenous people as unchanging communities, they are being treated as distinct from questions of the “modern” world. A specific focus and more research on indigenous peoples is needed in order to conduct the migration and development debate comprehensively.