Internal migration in Brazil using circular visualization

Abstract

In Brazil – a developing country and one that in its last census in 2010 presented a number of five-year interstate migrations of approximately 4.6 million people – the study of internal migration is a complex exercise given the size and diversity of the country. We adapted the chord diagram plot to visualize the bilateral interstate migration flows in Brazil over a five-year period of 2005–10, and the migration stocks in Brazil in 2010. The bilateral migration flows highlight some recent trends of interstate migration (observed in recent decades), in turn different from cumulative flows over a long period (migration stocks). Brazilian internal migration in the new millennium seems to be marked by the inability of destination areas to absorb migrants over long periods, by the return migration to areas of origin and by the emergence of new areas of retention of migrants.