[Recent trends in the spatial mobility of the population of Paraiba]

Recent trends in migration affecting the Brazilian state of Paraiba are analyzed. "Three dimensions of the state's migrations are analysed here: inter-state mobility, the growth of urban population, and the rural exodus. The central thesis of this study is that the migration of Paraiba's population is an element which is determined by and at the same time determines the process of production and the conformity of space to the logic of profit at the present stage of Brazilian capitalist development. The intensity of emigration from Paraiba cannot be understood when it is divorced from the process of the organization of the socio-economic space of the nation. The greater the imbalance between the economy of the state and that of Brazil's metropolises, the more frequent are the fluxes of migrants. On the [other] hand conservative modernization of agriculture has largely contributed to strengthen the causes of the ousting of peasants inherent to the state's economic framework." (SUMMARY IN ENG)