Italian immigration in Costa Rica

Abstract

First, it is necessary to clarify what sporadic migration is. The answer is that this is simply an isolated, occasional and quantitatively unimportant migration and that, however, because of those same properties it is no longer important as a social phenomenon itself, because it cannot be excluded that it can be qualitatively significant. In Costa Rica, during the colonial period and more than three-quarters of the nineteenth century, Italian immigration had that sporadic character. Specifically to the colonial period, from 1502 to 1821, we delimit this article. This is a period that has been labelled "prohibitive" by experts in terms of Latin American conditions to encourage the arrival of immigrants (1). However, before analyzing the place of reception of these immigrants (or perhaps, by that time it would be better to specify the category of navigators, explorers, travelers and adventurers) it is necessary to mention the socio-economic-political conditions that existed in Italian (or Italic) lands at that time.