Americas Migration Brief - August 19, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“Analysis of Twitter data in (Latin America and the Caribbean) regarding the online conversation on migration shows that messages with xenophobic content are increasing,” explain Felipe Muñoz Gómez, Marta Luzes, and Lucina Rodríguez at Migration Policy Practice, noting that “the many positive benefits of migration is a communication challenge.”
A NICEP working paper explores Colombian and Peruvian public opinion on migration, finding that the “results cast doubt on the importance of political trust for migration preferences in contexts of limited state capacity, instead highlighting its partial substitution by interpersonal trust.” (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇵🇦 Panama
Months after 300 families from the Guna Yala archipelago were voluntarily relocated to the mainland due to the threat of climate change impacts, the children are still forced to take boats to the island to attend school, reports El País, noting fears from teachers that the current situation will lead to an increase in school dropouts. A lack of water has prevented the new school built on the mainland from opening.
🇨🇱 Chile
Foreigners are increasingly registered to vote across Chile, explains Nómade. As of 2020, just 5 countries in the world allow foreigners to vote in national elections, 3 of which are in South America: Chile, Ecuador, and Uruguay.
Social exclusion and discrimination may potentially push migrant children to be more vulnerable to recruitment into organized crime groups, reports BioBioChile.
Chile is extending the validity of expired Venezuelan passports and making certain document requirements more flexible, thus facilitating regularization and other processes for Venezuelans given consulate closures. (El Pitazo, InfoMigra; see AMB 8/5/24)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Rising immigration may have sparked a recent backlash, with many Canadians fearing that new arrivals are contributing to the high cost of housing and other goods. As the government increases permanent immigration, it is also looking to cap the number of temporary residents,” note Michael Haan, Lindsay Finlay, and Yuchen Li at MPI, explaining the great diversity of Canada’s immigrant (and total) population: “This situation poses new questions about the meaning of words such as integration. What, for example, does it mean to fit in when there is no clear single group in which to fit?”
🇺🇲 United States
“The federal government is processing citizenship requests at the fastest clip in a decade, moving rapidly through a backlog that built up during the Trump administration and the coronavirus pandemic,” reports New York Times.
MPI explores the Dominican migrant population in the US, including various integration indicators.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
A CGRS report exploring climate-related displacement calls for the Chile Declaration prepared as part of the Cartagena +40 Process to “(1) Acknowledge the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable populations and commit to a rights-based response; (2) Recognize climate-induced displacement within the refugee definitions under international and regional frameworks; (3) Uphold the principle of non-refoulement to prevent returning individuals to life-threatening situations; and (4) Implement rights-centered complementary pathways as additional tools in the response.”
Criterio highlights the impacts of extractive industries and climate change on causing displacement and forcing migrants to leave their communities in Northern Central America.
🇨🇴 Colombia
“The number of Colombians living in areas where armed groups operate has increased by 70 per cent since 2021,” explains the Norwegian Refugee Council, noting that “293,000 people were forcibly displaced during 2023 in Colombia - more than 800 people daily.”
Check out a recent special edition of the AMB about the quiet crisis of internal displacement across the hemisphere.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juárez, has seen a considerable decrease in migration flows but an increase in the number of migrants whom criminals are kidnapping or otherwise targeting for extortion, said the state government’s public security secretary.” (Norte Digital; via Daily Border Links)
Meanwhile, “Shelters in Tijuana have seen an uptick in the number of unaccompanied minors coming into their facilities in recent months,” notes Border Report.
“The critical migration situation in Mexico City (CDMX) has become unsustainable. Informal camps have multiplied in various parts of the capital due to the shortage of shelters. This has increased the vulnerability of thousands of migrants to physical and mental problems resulting from the insecure, unsanitary conditions and lack of access to health care they face on the streets,” says Doctors Without Borders, adding that the lack of secure housing and shelter has “resulted in an increase in cases of sexual violence, land grabs, extortion, and kidnapping that victimize the migrant population. For example, between January and June 2024, we detected 83 cases of sexual violence. An increase of 80.43% compared to the same period last year.”
🇭🇹 Haiti
“Over 578,000 people are now displaced in Haiti, with more than 112,000 living in 96 informal sites in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, including in schools, churches, and sports fields. Many of these sites lack water supplies and sanitation facilities such as latrines, resulting in difficult and dangerous living conditions and increasing the risk of waterborne diseases,” explains Doctors Without Borders.
An IOM report explores mental health concerns and risk of suicide among IDPs affected by gang violence in Haiti.
🇬🇵 Guadeloupe
“Despite the case law of the ECHR and the CNDA and the daily decisions of the Guadeloupean courts, noting a situation of generalized violence in Haiti and the risks incurred in the event of return… the prefecture of Guadeloupe expelled a person there,” warns La Cimade, noting that Guadeloupe “continues to lock up Haitian people… on a daily basis with a view to their expulsion.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
Guarulhos airport, outside of São Paulo, saw 5,428 asylum requests in the first seven months of 2024, surpassing the 4,239 recorded throughout 2023. A Congressional committee met to discuss the situation at the airport, reports MigraMundo, explaining that “In recent months, there have been recurring episodes of significant groups of migrants being held in the area without the necessary documentation to enter Brazil. This stay often occurs under precarious hygiene, accommodation and food conditions,
🇨🇺 Cuba
Correction: last week’s AMB included a story about Cuban migrant deaths and disappearances at sea. The story was from August 2023, not 2024. Cuban maritime migration and its dangers remain prevalent, still, as evidenced by continuing US Coast Guard returns of Cubans apprehended at sea. (WSVN)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers is “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”, a UN special rapporteur has warned, amid growing calls to overhaul the controversial program. The damning report from the UN investigator Tomoya Obokata found that deep power imbalances and discriminatory practice in Canada cuts costs for companies but exploits workers from the global south,” reports The Guardian, noting, “Throughout the country, he found workers were locked in debt bondage. Many had borrowed money to participate in the program and relied on their Canadian wages to repay accrued debts. He also heard testimony of widespread emotional and physical abuse, wage theft, hazardous work conditions, long hours, sexual harassment and exploitation”.
“Quebec is calling on Ottawa to introduce a nationwide quota system to evenly distribute asylum seekers across Canada,” reports CBC.
🇺🇸 United States
“The U.S. government is moving to speed up asylum claim processing at its northern border in an attempt to deter migrants from illegally crossing over from Canada,” reports CBC. “The effort involves two changes to how the U.S. processes migrants under a longstanding "Safe Third Country" asylum agreement with Canada. That accord, first signed in 2002 and expanded last year, allows U.S. and Canadian authorities to return asylum-seekers across their shared border under the premise that both nations are safe countries for people to request refuge,” notes CBS.
Cato Institute's David Bier and Alex Nowrasteh review at Reason the temporary pause on the humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuleans, arguing that “oddities and errors are not evidence of fraud,” and that “Finding mistakes like this in big data is absolutely normal.” The CHNV program’s applications are the first entirely-online forms that DHS has handled.
“There is likely some fraud in CHNV, just like there is fraud in any large program, but it's better to focus on trying to identify individual instances rather than shutting down the entire program over misunderstanding administrative data. Since the CHNV program came online, illegal entries from these countries have fallen dramatically.”
Border sheriffs and law enforcement in Texas are being “trained how to use chemical ball and tear gas launchers… to help law enforcement manage crowds” of migrants. (NewsNation)
“DHS is looking into ways it might use facial recognition technology to track the identities of migrant children, “down to the infant,” as they age,” reports MIT Technology Review, highlighting “the significant sensitivities regarding privacy and consent when it comes to minors.”
“Stricter background checks, better data collection and transparency are three of the solutions former U.S. Army Captain Jason Piccolo proposes to protect unaccompanied migrant children from being placed with inadequately vetted sponsors.” (Newsweek; via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“The DHS Inspector General published a report on January 2024 unannounced inspections of CBP facilities in Border Patrol’s mid-Texas Del Rio Sector. It found that agents were holding 23 percent to 31 percent of detainees longer than the 72-hour standard due to limited ICE bed space and prioritization of family units over single adults. All inspected facilities had lower-than-required medical staffing levels, and agents were not consistently logging meals and welfare checks.” (DHS; via Daily Border Links)
BorderReport highlights long wait times in Mexico for some attempting to enter the US through the CBPOne app, which provides 1,450 appointments daily.
The Biden administration’s moves to limit access to asylum at the US-Mexico border are “at best, temporarily keeping migrants away but not reducing their overall numbers, their need for protection or their intent to reach the United States,” write Refugee International’s Yael Schacher and Rachel Schmidtke at USA Today.
“A NOTUS investigation raised concerns that those aboard a recent deportation flight to China, most of them likely people apprehended at the border, may have included members of Muslim ethnic groups, like Uyghurs and Kazakhs, facing “genocide.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and National Security Council (NSC) officials were repeatedly unresponsive to reporters’ inquiries.” (via Daily Border Links))
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting that Texas is “laying down fresh razor wire amid mounting questions about state National Guard and police use of force along the borderline.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🇵🇦🇺🇸 United States and Panama
US-funded deportation flights from the Darien Gap will begin on Tuesday, August 20, reports EFE. The presidents of the US and Panama spoke on the phone last week, discussing migration, among other topics. “The two leaders discussed joint efforts to address the challenges stemming from irregular migration through Panama, including the regularization of migrant populations and increased humane enforcement efforts,” according to a US readout.
“On paper, the plan is clear. In practice, it is impossible to fulfil… virtually all Darién Gap migrants could be deemed fit for deportation. In order to send them home, Panama would need to have agreements with the receiving countries. Discussions are beginning with Colombia and Ecuador. Following Mr Maduro’s electoral fraud, Panama’s government suspended diplomatic relations with Venezuela,” says The Economist, adding, “Panama has received an initial sum of $6m to equip and train Senafront agents and to pay for repatriation flights,” which will allegedly only be conducted on a voluntary basis, except for in the case of criminals.
Even still, “Frank Abrego, Panama’s public security minister, says that his office is considering running ferries to carry up to 2,000 people at a time from Colombia to Panama. As long as the migrants are not wanted criminals, they would be allowed to “continue in search of their American dream,” he says.”
Per last week’s AMB, deportations of Venezuelans would reportedly be to Colombia.
🇧🇪🇸🇷 Suriname and Belgium
A Skills Mobility Partnership between Suriname and Belgium will fund the training of Surinamese healthcare workers, with some migrating to work in Belgium, reports Suriname Herald. (see also IOM)
A special edition of the AMB from June explained the partnership in the context of proposals to address the crisis of healthcare worker and teacher emigration in the Caribbean.
🇪🇸🇨🇴 Colombia and Spain
Colombian and Spanish officials met to discuss migration, agreeing to address the issue with a human rights lens. (EFE)
Labor Migration
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s construction sector is highly reliant on Nicaraguan migrant labor, reports Confidencial, noting that migrant workers in the construction sector have access to a Special Restricted Category meant to speed up the legal hiring and migration status process.
🇨🇦 Canada
The Canadian government’s consideration of restricting the arrival of low-wage temporary migrant workers worries agriculture and caregiving sectors, reports CBC.
“Four provinces offering incentives to skilled immigrants in healthcare occupations” (CIC News)
🇺🇲 United States
New York Times highlights the rarity of and obstacles to migrating legally to the US, noting, “Those without close family ties may be able to apply for employment visas, but these are largely limited to those with specialized education and capped at 140,000 per year, a number that includes family members of sponsored workers.”
“The U.S. Embassy in Havana announced expanded visa services. This move marks a noteworthy shift in visa services, with renewed categories for temporary work and exchange programs now available for various categories of applicants” in Cuba, explains CEDA’s US-Cuba News Brief.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
A Meganálisis poll finds that 43% of Venezuelans are considering emigrating, with approximately 100,000 in the country estimated to be making plans to emigrate as soon as possible. (Twitter)
Borders and Enforcement
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said Tuesday that he has reinforced border surveillance due to the entry of hundreds of Mexicans fleeing violence from drug trafficking groups,” reports El Universo.
🇭🇹 Haiti
“Haiti recalled most of its diplomatic staff in Suriname, and fired locally hired contractors “after French authorities raised concerns that diplomatic staff could possibly be complicit in Suriname being used as a way station for Haitian migrants seeking to enter French territories,” reports the Miami Herald.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a proposal that would let local police make arrests near the state’s border with Mexico will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot for voters to decide,” reports AP.
The Border Chronicle highlights the bipartisan consensus on restrictive border rhetoric amid the current presidential election campaign season.
🇵🇪 Peru
Peru has removed tourism-related visa restrictions for Georgia. (Fragomen)
More on Migration
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada “announced a new immigration pilot to welcome more international students into Francophone communities across Canada.” (CIC News)