Costa Rica

Nicaragua has the second-highest emigration rate in Central America behind El Salvador and 40 per cent of Nicaraguan households receive remittances. In contrast to migrants from other Central American countries however Nicaraguan migrants are more likely to move within the region to Costa Rica than to the United States. This paper is concerned specifically with the implications of migration within Central America for family life. Focusing on the case of Costa Rica and Nicaragua the paper argues that the provision of care in Nicaraguan transnational families occurs in the context of multiple insecurities both historical and contemporary. In this sense migration represents both a solution to the insecure climate of care provision and a source of further insecurity. The paper frames this analysis within scholarship on the privatization of care work caregiving in transnational families and historical patterns of diverse family configurations. It then draws on more than 24 months of ethnographic research between 2009 and 2016 including interviews and participant observation with migrants living in Costa Rica and their families in Nicaragua to show how Nicaraguan families develop strategies based on a history of informal and flexible caregiving. In particular marriage informality and grandmother caregiving are highlighted. While these informal strategies allow families to navigate the challenges migration and family separation entail they also contribute to continued vulnerability and reinforce the gendered burdens of caregiving within transnational families.

Agreement between the United Mexican States and the Republic of Costa Rica concerning the exchange of information regarding tax matters. Mexico City 25 April 2011

Costa Rica has sought to improve its position in the global economy by prioritizing export growth in two high-tech manufacturing industries led by foreign direct investment (FDI): electronics and medical devices. We use a global value chain (GVC) perspective to identify key commonalities and contrasts in Costa Rica’s performance in upgrading these two sectors. Because the electronics and medical devices GVCs have very different structures in Costa Rica (electronics is dominated by a single large firm Intel whereas medical devices has a highly diversified set of foreign manufacturers) multiple forms of upgrading downgrading and knowledge spillovers are possible. Although the experience of these two industries illustrates different paths to upgrading developing backward linkages in Costa Rica was not the preferred nor the only way of moving up the value chain. The medical devices sector exhibited more traditional knowledge spillovers and labor market features of local industrial agglomerations whereas the electronics sector demonstrated significant wage and skill-level gains because of the incorporation of high-value service activities due to the evolving global strategy of its GVC lead firm Intel. By combining a GVC perspective with a focus on knowledge flows and value creation at the local level we seek to promote more explicit integration of international business and economic geography concepts and methods.