Americas Migration Brief - April 1, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association is calling for the advancement of legislation to improve access to education for migrant children in the country, noting that “teachers would need additional training and resources to ensure that they can impart knowledge and the curriculum effectively to students from a migrant background, who may not have English as a second language, and need that extra support.” (Guardian)
🇧🇷 Brazil
The Guardian highlights increasing Indigenous Venezuelan migration to Brazil and the difficulties the Warao people face in the country, from a lack of decent housing to little education and economic opportunities.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador’s migrant regularization process, initiated in 2022, will come to a close this month, reports El Universo, noting that the two-year, renewable “Virte” visa has been delivered to: 66,534 Venezuelans that had entered Ecuador at an official port of entry, 24,390 Venezuelans that had entered irregularly, and 1,200 migrants of other nationalities that entered at an official port of entry.
🇨🇱 Chile
Chile is currently developing new regulations for the recognition of titles, explains InfoMigra, summarizing in another article the proposed minimum requirements according to the draft policy.
Chile is “studying” the possibility of a regularization program, per a La Tercera interview with the head of the National Migration Service, Luis Thayer. The interview also covers protection and enforcement issues.
IDB explores the financial inclusion of migrants in Chile, highlighting the role of Fondo Esperanza, a “comprehensive microfinance service focused on entrepreneurship in the most vulnerable sectors” that currently serves 5,000 migrants in the country, among others.
🇺🇸 United States
“Slower growth in the working-age foreign-born population between 2016 and 2022 reduced U.S. real GDP growth by an estimate of up to 1.3 percentage points in 2022. U.S. real GDP (gross domestic product) would have risen by up to an estimated 3.2 percentage points in 2022 if the working-age foreign-born population had continued to grow at the same rate it did during the first half of the 2010s… The “lost,” or foregone, GDP as a result of slower growth in the working-age foreign-born population after 2015 is equivalent to about $335 billion in 2022 alone,” says an NFAP policy brief.
Fwd.us highlights further data on the benefits of immigration for the US economy.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
IRAP and partner organizations outline a “legal action agenda that sets concrete steps to ensure the rights and well-being of climate-displaced people in the Americas,” including both internal and international displacement contexts, as well as “the right to stay.”
A DRC report explores legal needs to support access to protection in the cases of Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Honduras.
🇨🇱 Chile
2 migrants died in seperate incidents last week after attempting to enter the north of Chile irregularly. (BioBioChile, La Tercera)
🇲🇽 Mexico
8 Chinese migrants drowned off the coast of southern Mexico en route north from Guatemala. (Milenio)
“Ransom kidnappings and other attacks on migrants are worsening at the Mexico-Guatemala border, especially the central region where the Pan-American Highway crosses into Chiapas, reported Milenio.” (via WOLA)
A group of 85 kidnapped migrants has been released, reports Primicias.
“Ten humanitarian organizations in Mexico City warned of the increasingly precarious situation of migrants from many countries stranded in Mexico’s capital. Most are attempting to secure online CBP One appointments at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry.” (document; via WOLA)
🇧🇷 Brazil
Brazil’s Congolese community is calling for a “humanitarian visa that guarantees family reunification,” says MigraMundo.
🇯🇲 Jamaica
Jamaica has agreed to take in “children from one orphanage as well as about 53 World Bank employees” from Haiti, reports Radio Jamaica News.
🇦🇷 Argentina
A paper at Refuge explores “the first private sponsorship scheme to be introduced into Latin America in the last decade, the Syria Program, which has been in place in Argentina since 2014,” arguing that “Unlike refugee sponsorship schemes that have appeared in other countries, the Argentine private sponsorship program does not complement a public state resettlement scheme but rather appears to replace it.” (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇺🇸 United States
“Guatemala migrant woman dies after 30-foot fall from California border fence” (UPI)
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended and redesignated Burma (Myanmar) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS)” (Fragomen)
“President Biden is facing pressure from dozens of lawmakers and hundreds of rights groups to expand immigration protections for people fleeing extreme violence from armed gangs in Haiti,” reports Axios, highlighting a joint letter calling for a new TPS designation for Haitians.
“So far there are no plans to change course” from the Biden administration, reports NBC, citing officials.
“Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has greatly expanded the number of immigrants who are eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS),” notes Pew, reviewing the data.
“A federal judge on Friday sharply questioned the Biden administration’s position that it bears no responsibility for housing and feeding migrant children while they wait in makeshift camps along the U.S-Mexico border… The migrants, who crossed the border illegally, are waiting there for Border Patrol agents to arrest and process them. The question is whether they are in legal custody. That would start a 72-hour limit on how long children can be held and require emergency medical services and guarantees of physical safety, among other things,” reports AP.
Ahead of the court hearing, the New York Times had highlighted public health concerns at such camps in California.
“Steps Forward. Steps Back: A Year’s Efforts to Combat the Labor Exploitation of Unaccompanied Children” (USCRI)
USCIS has reopened a field office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with the aim of “increasing refugee processing capacity and helping reunite individuals with their family members already in the United States.” (press release)
“Last month, (USCIS) released their Fiscal Year 2023 data, showing a reduction in net-backlogged applications for the first time in over a decade. The backlog decreased by 15 percent as digitalization and bureaucratic improvements allowed the agency to process 10 million applications during FY 2023,” says UnidosUS, noting, “One major factor generating this backlog revolves around the agency’s inability to secure enough funding to hire more Immigration Officers” and that “The agency’s reliance on paper-based forms also contributed to the backlog.”
“Approximately 200,000 deportation cases have been thrown out by Immigration Judges since the start of the Biden administration because (DHS) hadn’t filed the required Notice to Appear (NTA) with the Court by the time of the scheduled hearing… DHS has been able to block off the Court’s valuable limited time by scheduling hearings for cases that do not legally exist, because DHS has not filed the required NTA before the hearing. With Immigration Judges staring down 3.5 million pending immigration cases, every wasted hearing is a hearing that could have moved another case forward or resolved it,” says TRAC, adding that “immigrants, usually asylum seekers these days, who then show up to scheduled hearings only to find out they have no case after all are left without any means of making an asylum claim.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, explaining, “Migration at the U.S.-Mexico border usually increases in springtime. That is not happening in 2024, although numbers are up in Mexico and further south. Increased Mexican government operations to block or hinder migrants are a central reason.”
The impact is particularly strong for Venezuelans: “Mexico reported 56,312 encounters with Venezuelan citizens in January and February—almost 3 times the U.S. figure. That points to a strong likelihood that the Venezuelan population is increasing sharply within Mexico right now.”
🇨🇦 Canada
“Immigration Minister Marc Miller says he has no plans to extend an emergency visa program for Ukrainians beyond an end-of-month deadline for them to arrive in Canada… about 300,000 Ukrainians will have arrived in Canada by the end of March,” reports The Globe and Mail.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Colombia and Ecuador have signed on to the same deal Venezuela has made with Mexico to accept deportees, with deportees receiving a six-month stipend and employment assistance. The program, dubbed “Juntos por el Bienestar” (Together for Well-being), is not expected to launch until the second half of the year, reports El Universal. (see last week’s AMB)
Milenio highlights quotes from Venezuelan migrants rejecting the premise of the program, arguing that the stipend would be insufficient to cover food and that they can make more money working in Mexico or the US.
MPI highlights US dependency on other countries’ cooperation, particularly for border enforcement.
“While Spain plays an active role in EU debates on migration policy, it also has increasing cooperation with the United States on shared migration flows from Latin America. The joint collaboration around the SMOs and labor migration underscore these growing efforts,” says MPI.
US “Vice President Kamala Harris and the Partnership for Central America (PCA) today announced more than $1 billion in new private sector commitments, as part of Central America Forward (CAF), a public-private partnership that was created in response to the Vice President’s Call to Action for Northern Central America.” (fact sheet)
🇺🇸🇬🇹 Guatemala and United States
Following high-level meetings between the US and Guatemala, new measures have been announced under the Biden administration’s “Root Causes Strategy” in an effort to address migration drivers in Guatemala. (fact sheet)
“Guatemala’s government added its voice to international opposition to Texas’s S.B. 4 law.” (press release via WOLA; see last week’s AMB)
Labor Migration
🇨🇦 Canada
“Following a meeting in February between Uzbek Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Bekhzod Musayev and Canadian Ambassador to Uzbekistan Alan Hamson, the Agency for External Labour Migration has reported that North American construction companies are to invite 5,000 citizens of Uzbekistan to work in Canada,” reports The Times of Central Asia.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Darién, the natural border between Panama and Colombia… most of those who have crossed into Panama are Venezuelans (64,307), followed by Ecuadorians (8,198), Haitians (6,661) and Colombians (6,462),” reports La Prensa Latina.
🇵🇪 Peru
A paper at Iberoamericana explores the role of “adaptive migration” in response to climate change in two highlands communities in Peru.
Borders and Enforcement
🇵🇦 Panama
“The candidate who leads the voting intentions in the presidential elections in Panama, José Raúl Mulino, is convinced of closing the borders to prevent the free transit of migrants. His plan, he says, is to deport migrants who transit irregularly and prevent the Darién, the dangerous Central American jungle, from being the starting point for hundreds of thousands of people trying to reach the United States,” reports Crónica.
🇧🇸 The Bahamas
“The Royal Bahamas Defence Force is reporting an increase in the number of Haitian migrants intercepted in Bahamian waters. 122 Haitians were picked up on the weekend off Ragged Island, bringing the total number of migrants picked up in Bahamian waters over the past two weeks to 369,” reports Radio Jamaica News.
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
“Amidst the ongoing Haiti unrest, the UK will be deploying the warship HMS Trent to the Turks and Caicos Islands in a show of military support. The move is meant to bolster TCI’s border security in response to the influx of Haitian migrants fleeing the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis,” reports TC Weekly News.
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada deported 23,000 migrants in 2022 and 2023, reports The Breach, noting, “It’s the highest level of deportations since 2012,” and arguing, “This flies in the face of a December 2021 commitment by the Liberal government to introduce a regularization program that would allow more undocumented people to stay in the country.”
🇧🇴🇭🇳 Honduras and Bolivia
“Bolivia and Honduras have signed a reciprocal visa waiver agreement.” (Fragomen)
More on Migration
🇪🇨 Ecuador
42% of Ecuadorians want to emigrate, with the majority looking to the US, reports El Universo, citing a Cedatos survey. Although insecurity is “the number one problem” in the country, those looking to migrate cite economic reasons as the leading cause—insecurity has had a profound impact on the country’s economy, including causing the shuttering of businesses.
🇨🇺 Cuba
An Inter-American Dialogue report explores remittances to Cuba and the money transfer market in the country.
🇭🇳 Honduras
IOM and Honduras’ statistics institute conducted a national survey on migration—including internal, international, and intentions for future migration—and remittances between February and March of last year.
🇵🇪 Peru
A Migraciones Perú report outlines a research agenda for migration in the country, including several chapters on wide-ranging topics.
🇺🇸 United States