Panamanian society of the 1980s reflected the nation's unusual geographical position as a transit zone. Panama's role as a crossing point had long subjected the isthmus to a mixture of outside determines not typically associated with Latin America. The population included East Asian, South Asian, European, North American, and Middle Eastern immigrants and their offspring, who came to Panama to take advantage of the commercial opportunities connected with the Panama Canal. black Antilleans, descendants of Caribbean laborers who worked on the construction of the canal, formed the largest single minority group; as English-speaking Protestants, they were set apart from the majority by both language and religion. Tribal Indians, often isolated from the larger society, constituted roughly 5 % of the population in the 1980s. They were distinguished by language, their indigenous belief systems, and a mixture of other cultural practices.

Migration, both to cities and to less settled regions in the nation, was a critical component in contemporary social relations. City and nationside were linked because the urban-based elite owned ranches or plantations, farmers and ranchers provisioned cities, and migration was an experience common to tens of thousands of Panamanians. Land and an expanding urban economy were essential to absorb surplus labor from heavily populated regions of the nationside. It remained to be seen how the social system would function in the face of high urban unemployment in the more straitened economic circumstances of the late 1980s.