Probably the most dramatic impact on community development and urban growth in Baja California Sur is migration.  In-migration from foreign tourists, ex-patriates, and seasonal visitors, mainly from the U.S. and Canada, is accelerating the growth rate and bringing cultural changes to many urban areas in the state.  This surge in tourism-related economic growth is also bringing a second type of migration to the state – workers from other parts of Mexico seeking a better economic future.  Not all of these migrants flock to the coast for construction and tourism services jobs, however; migrant workers also labor in the fertile valleys near Todos Santos and in Comondú for up to eight months of the year.

In Baja California Sur, migrants accounted for less than 1% of the total inhabitants in the 1950s; in the 1960s, this rose to 6.7%, to 11.8% in the 1970s; and to 21.6% in the 1980s.  In 1992, 30.5% of the state population consisted of migrants.  Today, Baja California Sur has neither the public infrastructure nor the capacity to absorb and serve all migrant laborers coming to the state.  Illiteracy has increased in the state, and large slums and shantytowns have sprung up in San José del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, Loreto, and La Paz, increasing the pressure on the state to meet demands for public utilities, education and health services.^[1]

Overall, the state calculates the arrival of between 20,000 and 25,000 workers and their families during the high seasons – roughly 5% of its population.   In 2004, the Agricultural Day Workers Service Program (PROAJAG) of the Ministry of Social Development (SEDESOL) estimated a total of between 28,000-30,000 agricultural day-workers in the state.  Of these, PROAJAG works in twenty-seven locations (crop fields located in the municipalities of La Paz and Mulegé, and communities of day-workers living in the valleys of Vizcaíno and Santo Domingo), reaching about half to two-thirds of this needy population.

Indigenous workers comprise an unknown portion of the migrant population although the National Commission for Human Rights calculates that there are some 3,468 speakers of indigenous languages in the state (almost one percent of the population).  Thirty-two indigenous languages were identified, with the highest concentration of speakers in La Paz and Mulegé.^.[2]  Education and labor relations are severely affected by this language barrier, further isolating this transient population.