A Brief History of Migration in Peru

Published 11/22/2023 in Scholar Travel Stipend

Written by Sarah Deonarain | 11/22/2023

Being passionate about migration, my recent trip to Peru was not only full of stunning scenery but also rich in migration history. Cusco was the capital city of the Incan empire, the largest ancient civilization in pre-Columbian America, which flourished from approximately 1200 to 1533 AD, and that is evident in its architecture and geography.

Surrounded by towering mountains, shrouded in forests with gleaming streams running through the hills, the Incans were incredibly advanced and shrewd in their engineering feats (i.e. being earthquake resistant and nondisruptive to nature) to build such a city out of this arduous terrain. Though little is taught about the Incans and I admittedly had little prior knowledge, notably about how they moved physically throughout the landscape as well as how they interacted with other indigenous groups or inhabitants in the Andean territory, migration is an essential part of Incan history. Machu Picchu itself, today a world wonder (and rightfully so, for it is breathtaking and awe-inspiring), was built from the bottom up. The Incans, like the rest of humanity, were a migratory people, moving and building as they expanded their empire. Indigeneity is diverse; Quecha was the official Incan language but it had hundreds of local dialects spoken throughout the empire.
Migration and ethnicity go hand-in-hand. Although Latin American ancient civilizations are often depicted as alien, strange, and even subhuman, because their histories have been told by colonizers who had no idea of their existence and were ignorant, the Incans were just as human – and perhaps, even a little superhuman. As I walked the original, narrow, and steep pathways (without guardrails) carved into the mountains by the Incans, I realized how strenuous and dangerous it must’ve been to go up and down on a regular basis and how skilled and physically capable the Incans had to be. Without a written language and without the use of mortar to build (meaning, “the pieces fit together so perfectly that even a single knife blade couldn’t pass through the junctures”), the Incans still managed to rule over a vast territory. But when the Spaniards arrived, they decimated this civilization. The Incans went from emperors of the region to victims of genocide… refugees fleeing along secret pathways only they knew about. Very few escaped and only centuries later would the riches and beauty of the old empire be discovered. It is important, however, to tell a migration story of the Incans that is not just depressing or about the negatives, but also how they moved around the region, constructing magnificent things and leaving behind mysterious and wondrous achievements. Too often, migration stories are sordid and heavy. Machu Picchu calls us to remember both their glory and their pain.

Peru’s migration story continues today, long after the alluring and mesmerizing Incan civilization fell. The Spaniards reorganized the racial and gender hierarchy of Peruvian society, treating women and darker-skinned people as second-class citizens or worse. (Did you know that women could run for government in the Incan empire?) Mestizos, or people with Spanish and indigenous heritage, emerged as a new class, and as the “old” and “new” worlds or “east” and “west” enmeshed, new racial groups arrived to Peru, notably Asian immigrants. Chinese slaves, though they were likely from a range of modern-day countries in South, East, and Southeast Asia, were specifically brought over to build the railroads throughout Peru, such as the train I took to arrive at Las Aguas Calientes, the pueblo at the bottom of Machu Picchu. Such a phenomenon actually occurred all throughout the colonial world – Asian immigrants were brought to Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean to work, and as a result, they have complex stories in each of these places. As Asian workers integrated and married into the local Peruvian population, a new fusion culture emerged, evident in one of two of Peru’s national dishes: lomo saltado, a Chinese-inspired beef stir fry, served with white rice, that originated in Lima’s barrio chino, which stands alongside ceviche, raw fish cured in lime juice and seasoned well, the other national dish and an indigenous creation dating back to thousands of years ago. It is important to note that Asian immigrants have had long histories all throughout Latin America, including my own Indo-Caribbean family in Suriname! Asian Latinos continue to rise economically and politically in the region. (And there are also huge Arab populations in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico!) At my current job at the International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, one of my supervisors is a Panamanian with a Chinese background – fascinating! Though this Asian influence reflects today's postcolonial world and modern Peru is very different from the days of the Incans, Latin America and the Caribbean never was, is, or will be homogenous. The Incans ruled over a diverse population and the Peruvian government today also has a rich constituency. What a heritage!

Peru’s identity will continue to shift in the coming years due to migration, with the arrival of migrants from other Latin American countries, such as Venezuelans and Colombians, and the exodus of Peruvians themselves to other parts of the region, such as the notable presence of Peruvians in Santiago, Chile, where I currently live on a postgraduate fellowship. Political instability, economic crises and domestic terrorism push Peruvians out, while political persecution and economic and humanitarian crises, as well as violence fueled by drugs and crime, abroad bring others to Peru. Remittances play a vital role in Peru’s economy, as Peru now has quite a large diaspora. As Chile’s policies towards migrants have grown more stringent and Peru’s had to deal with both inflows and outflows, I observe that migration has become a critical topic in the region now more than ever and there is a necessity for holistic, historically informed, compassionate, and economically sound policies to address ongoing crises, especially as Peruvian (and other) migrants cross dangerous territories, like the world’s driest desert in northern Chile and the Andes, which can reach freezing temperatures and are overall not hospitable. My interest in Peru’s migration history began here in Chile, but it has called to my attention the complexity of migration across all of Latin America and the Caribbean and inspired me to continue serving in this capacity for the social and economic development of the region. A key mission of the Milken Institute and the Milken Family Foundation is to advance the world’s progress on discovering the path (or paths) to meaningful life for those in developing countries and prepare the world for what’s coming next, and my trip to Peru, graciously supported by the Milken Institute and the Milken Family Foundation, helped me understand how migration has come to play a critical role in international development, beckoning us to engage in nuanced discussions about the subject. Thank you to the Milken Family Foundation and the Milken Institute for supporting my passions for international development and migration.