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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
A UNESCO and UNHCR report explores inclusion of refugee children in public education systems, highlighting case studies in the Americas with background papers with a focus on Venezuelans in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
UNICEF similarly explores educational inclusion for refugee children with an Ecuador case study here.
🇨🇴 Colombia
A paper at Economies finds that Venezuelan migration to Colombia in recent years “(increased) the number of non-returned native workers in the informal workforce without significant increases in the participation of informality in total employment.”
Universidad del Rosario’s Venezuela Observatory published a series of infographics explaining Venezuelan migration, diving into topics such as integration, refuge, and migrant women’s differentiated experiences and challenges.
“We will open public universities free of charge to Colombian and Venezuelan youth residing in Colombia. I look to the US government for financial assistance to sustain this program,” wrote Colombian president Gustavo Petro on Twitter, per El Heraldo.
🇵🇪 Peru
“More than 60,000 foreigners run the risk of falling into irregularity if, when their Temporary Permanence Permit Cards (CPP) expire, between March and June 2024, they do not request special resident immigration status,” notes Migraciones Perú.
An Encuentros SJM and DRC report explores the implementation of Peru’s migrant regularization program from May to November 2023, finding challenges such as the lack of appointment availability and website system failures, the entry date restrictions on access to the program and temporary nature of the program, document requirements, further complications surrounding documents for minors, and digital access gaps. (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Crises in Ecuador and Haiti will shape migration in Latin America in 2024,” warns the International Rescue Committee, noting increases in forced displacement due to violence and insecurity, deepening food insecurity, and the impacts of climate change.
More than 300,000 Cubans applied for asylum globally last year, including 241,553 in the US and 24,957 in Mexico. Other leading countries in the Americas receiving Cubans were Uruguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru, says Directorio Noticias.
Venezuelan migrants returning to their home country by foot are often in worse physical health than when they left, reports El Pitazo, citing an Odisef report.
🇨🇱 Chile
Chile’s Comptroller’s Office has given the go-ahead to publish Law N° 21.655, which will limit access to refugee status in the country for some applicants and allow the immediate return of certain migrants attempting to enter the country irregularly. (La Tercera, Copano, Twitter; see AMB 1/22/24)
🇵🇦 Panama
At least 4 migrants are dead and 7 missing after a shipwreck off the coast of Panama. (Reuters)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“According to Mexican media, an armed gang attacked two trucks with migrants, leaving 10 injured, and the one death was of a four-year-old Ecuadorian child.” (Primicias)
Control over migrant smuggling routes—and the capacity to kidnap and extort migrants—has led to increased criminal conflict in the southern state of Chiapas, reports InSight Crime, noting that the conflict is also a leading cause of displacement for residents.
“Consultations related to sexual assaults on migrants increased 70% in Matamoros and Reynosa between October 2023 and January 2024, revealed the international organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF),” reports Pie de Página.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) “can do whatever it wants, even above or outside the law,” and is “in a serious state of decomposition, with a legal and institutional tangle that makes it difficult to clarify which are the chains of command and powers that govern the concrete and daily actions of its agents. An institution increasingly permeated by military doctrine, training and command, which makes use of military technologies with the excuse of combating organized crime, but which ends up criminalizing people with protection needs,” according to Margarita Núñez Chaim of the Universidad Iberoamericana at El Universal.
🇨🇴 Colombia
An El Barómetro report explores vulnerability to security risks for migrants in Colombia amid the country’s internal armed conflict, noting a high concentration of homicides of Venezuelan migrant women in areas under the influence of certain armed groups.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Costa Rica passed in 2016 “the Regulations for the Declaration of the Status of a Stateless Person,” notes Confidencial, explaining the process to be considered stateless and pursue Costa Rican nationality.
“Nicaraguans seeking refuge are not safe in Costa Rica after the extradition of an opponent (of the Ortega government), says lawyer” (100% Noticias)
🇨🇦 Canada
A Clingendael report “provides insight into the key features of Canada’s asylum policy and practice regarding access to protection, extra-territorial and territorial asylum.”
🇺🇸 United States
“President Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order instructing federal immigration officials to refrain from deporting most Palestinian immigrants in the U.S.,” reports CBS, noting that “several thousand” are set to benefit, including by attaining access to temporary work permits.
Pew Research Center highlights polling of the US public about migration, noting that “A 60% majority of Americans say that increasing the number of immigration judges and staff in order to make decisions on asylum more quickly would make the (border) situation better… Nearly as many (56%) say creating more opportunities for people to legally immigrate to the U.S. would make the situation better.”
“Migrants in Mexico have made more than 64.3 million requests to enter the U.S. using a smartphone app that the Biden administration has tried to establish as the main gateway to the American asylum system at the southern border,” reports CBS, noting that “so far, nearly 450,000 migrants have been allowed into the U.S. under the process” using the CBP One App. It is unclear how many individual people this number represents given that many applicants make repeated requests amid delays.
“In 2019, the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) provision passed with bipartisan support through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2020, providing a pathway for Liberian migrants to obtain lawful permanent resident status after spending years with uncertain legal status in the U.S. Despite its promise, few applicants used the program, thanks partly to a challenging rollout amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that many of the complexities posed by the pandemic are resolved, Congress should reauthorize the program with a new application deadline so as many migrants as possible can benefit from permanent residence,” says Niskanen Center.
“An independent government watchdog found serious lapses at the Department of Health and Human Services in its protection of children who migrate to the United States on their own,” reports New York Times, highlighting that HHS “repeatedly handed them over to adult sponsors in the United States without thorough vetting and sometimes failed to conduct timely safety checks on children once they were released.”
A report from ACLU and partners “documents the U.S. government’s inhumane practice of confiscating migrants’ most essential and prized personal belongings as they cross our southern border, including vital medications and medical devices, legal and identity documents, religious items, and items of practical or sentimental importance.”
“Border Patrol Leaves Hundreds of Asylum Seekers Stranded in the Cold, Detains and Threatens Aid Workers Attempting to Respond” (No More Deaths)
An MPI report “examines the current state of the U.S. protection system, with a particular focus on recent changes the Biden administration has been making in asylum processes and temporary protections, as well as the challenges and lessons the U.S. experience may offer for other asylum systems and countries.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, explaining that “After the February 7 failure of negotiated bill language restricting migrants’ access to asylum, the Senate approved a Ukraine, Israel, and other foreign aid funding bill without that language, or any other border and migration-related content. That bill now goes to the Republican-majority House, whose leadership opposes bringing it to debate because it does not harden the border or restrict migration.”
At the same time, “Ten members of the House, five from each party, are proposing an alternative bill (text/ summary from Punchbowl News). This legislation would grant foreign aid similar to what is in the Senate bill, but includes some controversial border provisions… Next steps for this bill, which has yet to be formally introduced, are not clear.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo “indicated that in April there will be a meeting with representatives of Mexico and the United States that will take place in Guatemala City. The objective of this meeting will be to address the migration issue in two main aspects: foreign migrants who use Guatemalan territory as a transit route to go to North America and Guatemalan migrants,” reports La Hora.
US and Guatemalan officials met to discuss migration last week. (La Hora)
A US Under Secretary of State will visit Belize and Jamaica to discuss migration, among other topics. (press release)
🇲🇽🇭🇳 Honduras and Mexico
Mexican and Honduran officials met to discuss migration, among other topics, last week. (La Razón)
🇻🇪🇭🇳 Honduras and Venezuela
“Venezuela and Honduras held this Friday in Caracas the 'I Consular Round' on immigration matters, in which they shared information and experiences,” reports Infobae.
Labor Migration
🇪🇨 Ecuador
“A total of 82 Ecuadorians traveled to Spain on Wednesday… as part of the third season of the circular migration program signed between both countries,” reports Primicias, noting they will work in the agricultural sector for nine months before returning home.
🇺🇸 United States
A Cato paper “reviews the history of immigration caps and charts this backlog’s development,” noting that “Only about 3 percent of the people who have submitted green card applications will receive permanent status in the United States in fiscal year (FY) 2024.”
“DHS Changes H-1B Registration Process to Give Noncitizens an Equal Chance of Selection… Under the current system, USCIS selects from eligible registrations, which gives a noncitizen (the beneficiary) for whom multiple registrations were filed by potential H-1B employers a greater chance of selection than a noncitizen with a single registration filed for them” (Immigration Impact)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Amid record levels of migration through the Darien Gap, “There is no silver bullet for solving this humanitarian challenge, but any solution must involve investment in border communities like Acandi (in Colombia). The United States, Panama and Colombia should create sustainable economic opportunities for residents of these border towns, so they are not drawn into the lucrative business of human smuggling,” says World Politics Review.
🇭🇳 Honduras
At least 57,000 migrants have crossed through Honduras so far in 2024. (Tiempo)
🇺🇸 United States
“After a record-breaking number of encounters at the southern border in December, crossings dropped by half last month,” reports AP, noting that this “may prove only temporary. The drop in January reflects how the numbers ebb and flow, and the reason usually goes beyond any single factor.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“Guatemala is dissolving its police force’s border unit (Dipafront), which has been tarred with widespread corruption allegations.” (La Hora; via WOLA)
🇺🇸 United States
“The bipartisan border bill that Republican lawmakers opposed last week would have provided $6 billion in supplemental funding for ICE enforcement operations. The bill’s demise has led ICE officials to begin circulating an internal proposal to save money by releasing thousands of detainees and cutting detention levels from 38,000 beds to 22,000 — the opposite of the enforcement increases Republicans say they want,” says Washington Post.
A proposed bill in the New Hampshire Senate “would permit landowners — including those who live along the state’s northern border with Canada — to post "no trespassing" signs with exceptions for recreational use. That would clear the way for suspected undocumented migrants to be potentially arrested by local law enforcement — rather than federal border patrol agents — for criminal trespassing,” reports NHPR.
🇲🇽 Mexico
A paper at Current History argues that “Under the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico has abandoned plans for a more humane migration policy. Faced with increasing flows of asylum seekers from elsewhere in the hemisphere, the Mexican government has adopted a strategy of control and enforcement that mirrors the US approach.” (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇧🇿🇬🇹 Guatemala and Belize
Disagreements and tensions over where the Belize-Guatemala border lies have Belizean authorities “on edge” over irregular migration, among other issues, says New York Times.
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
“In her legal report at the opening of the 2024 law year, Honourable Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles said for 2024, her department will be focusing its efforts on bettering laws related to Border security as well as issues of Constitutional reform,” reports TC Weekly News.
Hi Jordi, thanks for putting together this great resource! Just a note that the first resource under integration and development/ regional is cited as UNICEF but is actually a UNESCO & UNHCR report (put together by my team). There is a UNICEF report that also has Ecuador as a case study, here: https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/1901-including-refugee-learners-in-national-education-systems.html