| Most agricultural households in the Andean highlands of Ecuador combine agricultural income with off-farm employment that requires temporary migration (circulation). In the past two decades, however, thousands of rural residents from Azuay and Canar Provinces have joined a large migration stream to the United States, directed primarily at New York. A large number of agricultural households have at least one family member living in the United States, but many households continue to rely on locally available options, such as temporary labor migration, to augment agricultural income.;After estimating the magnitude of international migration and the geography of international migrant origins in south-central Ecuador, this research explores the influence of circulation and international migration on agriculture and land-use in two distinct subregions of Canar Province: Upper and Lower Canar. Case histories, households surveys, and simple quantitative analyses are used to determine if there are major differences in the land-use options and decisions to employ them among the different types of migrant (circulating and emigrating) and "non-migrant" households. The central issue is the affect of migration on determining household land uses and the overall landscape.;This research found no significant relationship between household migration strategy and agricultural production for either Upper Canar or Lower Canar. Labor scarcity is alleviated with reciprocal labor relations in Upper Canar and with wage-labor in Lower Canar. Remittances are dedicated to canceling debt, purchasing land, perpetuating international migration, and building "modern" houses. Relatively early emigrants have purchased land that is now dedicated to intercropped maize in Lower Canar, and pasture for cattle raising in Upper Canar. The principle landscape change in Lower Canar is the slow loss of land to improved housing. The landscape is "peri-urban", with increasing income generated from New York. Agriculture remains an important risk-averse subsistence activity, however. Upper Canar is following a similar course, although differences in the timing and magnitude of international migration as well as regional economic and ecological conditions are reflected on the landscape. This variation in outcomes requires geographers to link globalizing processes, such as international migration, to the historical, economic, and ecological realities of particular places. |
