Economy

            In the last few decades there has been a mass migration out of Ecuador. The two main places Ecuadorians go to are the United States and Spain. In the United States, the most popular places they migrate to are Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis. Today Ecuadorians make up one of the largest groups of immigrants in New York and its suburbs. Ecuador also has many immigrants coming to the country, most notably from Peru and Colombia. One of the first reasons Ecuadorians began migrating to the U.S. was because of the economic fall of the Panama hate trade in the 1950s. Ecuadorians hand-wove Panama hats and sold and traded them to people who took them to the U.S. this was a significant part of their income, so when the business fell they needed to do something to keep themselves afloat financially. Many Ecuadorians followed the trail routed by the hate trade to New York, where they intended to make a decent living and then eventually go back home to Ecuador. This triggered the high volume movement of Ecuadorian migrants to other continents that lasted for the rest of the 20^th century and is even still present today.

            The economy in Ecuador is not promising for those with or trying to build a family. Often times, a head of the household or an older sibling will migrate to the United States or Spain because of their stronger, more profitable economies and send back much of the money they make working to their family in Ecuador. These funds help the family survive and many times bring them out of debt. People migrate to Ecuador from Peru and Colombia for many of the same reasons people migrate from Ecuador to the U.S. An additional reason is because Ecuador is much safer than these other two South American countries.

            There is a strong movement in Ecuador that has come about in the 2010s against corporations, the government, and oil companies. Ecuador is being exploited for all the natural resources it provides, but Ecuadorians are starting to fight back. They argue that extraction of Ecuador’s oil, minerals, and other substances is disruptive to life in Ecuador and interfering with many customs and practices of indigenous people, who are so ingrained and important in Ecuadorian identity, history, and culture.

            Although public eye in Ecuador deems more importance on masculine dominance, it is the everyday workers, who are both male and female, who keep the country running on a day-to-day basis. The men do a lot of public labor like driving trucks and taxis, moving goods, construction, and street vending. Women are the primary workers of the markets. Markets are often indoors or out of the public center. Women who are primarily housewives provide market women with products to sell, and market women sell these products to a variety of people, but a large part of their customer population is working women who purchase relatively ready-made food to provide to their families. Many tourists who shop at the markets do not purchase food for health safety concerns, but they do buy other goods that support the vendors in keeping their businesses going strong.