Immigration to Peru

Immigration to Peru involves the movement of immigrants to Peru from another country. Peru is a multiethnic nation formed by the combination of different groups over five centuries. Amerindians inhabited Peruvian territory for several millennia before Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. Spaniards and Africans arrived in large numbers under the Viceroyalty. Many people from European backgrounds mixed with the Amerindians or Asians creating an entirely new demographic group called "mestizos".

Various European ethnic groups settled in Peru following their 1824 independence from Spain, and the majority settled in the coasts and urban areas like Lima. After the abolition of slavery in 1854, immigrants from countries such as China, Northern Europe, and Japan arrived to do labor work in areas such as farming. In 2005, the UN put the number of immigrants in Peru at 42,000, which accounted for less than 1% of its population. However, a more recent report from the Peruvian Directorate of Migrations has put the number at 64,303. The largest group of foreign residents is from Argentina, which accounts for about 14% of the total with over 9000 Argentineans living in Peru. Immigrants from the United States make up just over 9% of the total with 5,800 US citizens now residing in Peru. Other large groups of immigrants in Peru include Chileans, Bolivians, Colombians, Brazilians, Uruguayans, Spanish and Chinese. The majority of foreign residents in Peru live in Lima, with other communities found in Cusco and Arequipa.