Peruvians Emigrating in Droves to Escape Inflation, Food Shortages and Rebel War

Wearied by food shortages, 1,110% inflation, coup rumors and a prolonged rebel war, many Peruvians are voting with their feet--and more than half would leave the country if they could.

In a recent survey, 52% of Peru’s 21 million people said they would emigrate if they had the financial means.

Experts say an alarming number in the flood of emigrants are university graduates and professionals with the brainpower to help Peru overcome its crises.

Long lines form every morning at the government passport office. Officials report an 80% increase in demand.

“Everybody wants to leave,” said the officer in charge, Police Capt. Manuel Quiroga Pizarro. “The economic situation is pushing people to emigrate.”

The number of emigrants is nearly doubling each year, said Sen. Enrique Bernales, the head of a Senate commission studying violence and its symptoms, such as increased emigration.

Statistics show that 27,017 Peruvians emigrated in 1986 and 53,076 left in 1987. The number is expected to jump to an estimated 80,000 in 1988. About 15,000 Peruvians this year have sought to emigrate to Canada alone, up from about 2,000 a year ago, said immigration officer Richard Herringer.

“The situation in this country is really horrible,” said Violeta, a secretary about to emigrate with her infant to live with relatives in Miami.

“There is no milk for the baby,” she said. “And the lines. . . .”

Bernales and other experts blame a lack of hope for the future among youth, fatigue from the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) insurgency’s 8-year-old guerrilla war and a sharp economic deterioration that has brought layoffs, food lines and a 50% loss in the average worker’s purchasing power.

The minimum monthly wage in Peru is $42. Doctors, lawyers, army generals and other professionals commonly earn less than $300 a month.

Many new emigrants are university graduates, Bernales said. Peru, whose universities educate 450,000 students annually, provides adequate jobs for only 30% of its graduates, he said.

“We are hundreds, thousands of university students who are in the street,” said Luis, 27, a recently graduated accountant, waiting in line for his passport. “We don’t have work.”

“The great objective, the golden dream if you will, is to get to the United States, however possible,” Bernales said. Luis said his parents, brothers and friends were passing the hat for money to send him abroad.

Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Argentina and Canada follow the United States as destinations, he said, though some serve as half-way points en route to the United States.

“I am told that Mexico is restricting visas to avoid the use of Mexico as an access point into the United States,” he said.

A university-educated taxi driver said he was going to fly to Cuba and take a fishing boat to Mexico, where he would cross into the United States.

Restrictions on tourist visas at the U.S., Canadian and Mexican embassies have generated a booming business in fake visas. Police say an estimated 2,000 Peruvians have bought fake Mexican visas alone this year.

Those who obtain tourist visas and travel legally often have changed their minds about coming back home.

A foreign banker said a client “just received a call from one of his employees who was in Canada on vacation. She liked it so much there and saw that things were so bad here that she quit over the telephone.