In this IMR Country Report, we draw attention to Costa Rica as a strategic location for expanding research and theory on migrants in need of protection (MNP), who have migrated abroad primarily to evade an imminent threat to their survival. MNP constitute an increasing share of all international migrants in Costa Rica and worldwide, yet research on these migrants and their migration dynamics remains comparatively underdeveloped relative to research on migrants who relocate abroad primarily in pursuit of material gains, social status, or family reunification. As we highlight, Costa Rica is an instrumental site to deepen understandings of MNP populations and migration dynamics because its large and rapidly growing MNP population is incredibly diverse with respect to national origins, demographic characteristics, and underlying motivations for migration. This diversity presents ample opportunities to better understand heterogeneity in the different types of threats MNP seek to evade; how and why MNP incorporation is shaped by individuals’ demographic attributes and pre-migration threats; and how the social networks of various MNP subpopulations develop and overlap with time. Moreover, the geographic concentration of MNP in two regions in Costa Rica lends itself to primary data collection among this population and generates opportunities for estimating local MNPs’ demographic characterization, even in the absence of a reliable sampling frame.

在这份 IMR 国家报告中，我们提请注意哥斯达黎加作为扩大有关需要保护的移民 (MNP) 的研究和理论的战略地点，这些移民移居国外主要是为了逃避对其生存的迫在眉睫的威胁。 MNP 在哥斯达黎加和世界各地的所有国际移民中所占的比例越来越大，但相对于对主要为了追求物质利益、社会地位或家庭团聚而移居国外的移民的研究，对这些移民及其移民动态的研究仍然相对不发达。正如我们强调的那样，哥斯达黎加是加深了解 MNP 人口和移民动态的重要场所，因为其庞大且快速增长的 MNP 人口在国籍、人口特征和移民潜在动机方面具有令人难以置信的多样性。这种多样性提供了充足的机会，可以更好地理解 MNP 试图规避的不同类型威胁的异质性；个人人口特征和移民前威胁如何以及为何影响 MNP 的成立；以及不同 MNP 亚群的社交网络如何随着时间的推移而发展和重叠。此外，即使在没有可靠的抽样框架的情况下，MNP 的地理集中在哥斯达黎加的两个地区也有助于收集该人群的主要数据，并为估计当地 MNP 的人口特征提供了机会。