Americas Migration Brief - May 20, 2024
Welcome to the Americas Migration Brief! If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing with a friend or colleague.
Se puede acceder aquí a una versión en español del boletín traducida por inteligencia artificial.
Consulte aqui uma versão em português do boletim traduzida por inteligência artificial.
Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇺🇾 Uruguay
Uruguay has announced a new regularization program for residency by “arraigo” (rootedness), “a legal figure that provides a solution to people who enter the country as refugee seekers but do not meet the conditions to be so,” per a press release. An estimated 20,000 or so will be able to benefit, including several thousand Cubans. (see also ADNCuba)
🇨🇱 Chile
A Centro de Estudios Públicos report finds that “immigrant students in the north have lower attendance, lower grade point average, and worse results on SIMCE language and mathematics tests than their Chilean schoolmates. If we analyze the trend in recent years, we notice an increase in the gap between immigrant schoolchildren and their Chilean peers in all parameters.” Contrary to perceptions, “the greater concentration of immigrant students in classrooms has not affected the academic performance of their Chilean classmates.”
InfoMigra summarizes recent migration-related bills proposed in Chile, which tend to have a restrictionist slant, although one, for example, calls for facilitating greater access to higher education for irregular migrants.
A copy of the World Bank study mentioned in last week’s AMB that shows the economic benefits of migration for Chile is available here.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
In the upcoming school year, “200 Venezuelan migrant children whose parents legally registered in this country in 2019 will finally get a chance to enroll in primary school,” reports Guardian.
🇬🇾 Guyana
“There are more than 3,000 migrant children currently enrolled in local classrooms” in Guyana, a growing number due to Venezuelan migration, reports News Source Guyana. The Education Ministry is planning to unveil initiatives to tackle bullying and discrimination in schools.
Furthermore, “Just last week in the National Assembly, the Opposition raised questions about the skill-sets of many of the (Venezuelan) migrants, and it was explained by the Labour Minister that a project will soon get underway to examine their skill-sets and to also provide training for them to become more job ready.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
The University of Brasília will waive fees for title revalidation for refugees or migrants with a humanitarian visa. (Metrópoles)
🇪🇨 Ecuador
IRC’s Healing Hands project focused on “the holistic development, care and protection of young migrant and host community children” in Ecuadorian cities, including by addressing the economic needs and responsibilities of caregivers, according to a report examining the initiative.
🇨🇴 Colombia
A Migración Colombia report characterizes the Afro-Venezuelan migrant population in Colombia.
An El Barómetro report explores “the impact of the reproduction of violent discourses against migrant women in social networks" in Colombia.”
🇭🇳 Honduras
“USAID and IRC launch program to foster the reintegration of returned and internally displaced people in Honduras” (press release)
🇺🇸 United States
“Immigrants contribute disproportionately to entrepreneurship in many countries, accounting for a quarter of new employer businesses in the US,” notes an NBER working paper.
MPI and Washington Post both highlight the history of the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act and xenophobic and discriminatory sentiments geared towards non-Anglo-Saxon migrants in the US—and its legacy today.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Child migration through the Darien Gap up 40 per cent so far this year… Of the 30,000 children on the move so far this year, nearly 2,000 of them were unaccompanied or separated from their families. The number of unaccompanied and separated children tripled in comparison to the same period in 2023. The number of children in transit is also growing five-times faster than the number of adults.” (UNICEF)
An Inter-American Dialogue report explores children’s right to identification and nationality and efforts to reduce the risk of statelessness in the Americas.
🇭🇹 Haiti
An IOM DTM report profiles deported Haitians and highlights their difficulties with reintegration amid severe violence and insecurity in the country. 23% had been internally displaced in Haiti prior to their emigration, with 63% of such cases due to violence.
🇲🇽 Mexico
A report by CGRS and partners “discusses myriad barriers to protection and inhumane conditions facing Haitian asylum seekers in Mexico” based on interviews in Tapachula and Mexico City. (press release; via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“About half a million people have been displaced by intense flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state — the disaster “could touch off one of Brazil's biggest cases of climate migration in recent history,” reports Reuters. El País reports on climate displacement in southern Brazil: “The consensus of the scientific community is that not enough money has been invested to confront climate disasters in this state.”” (via Latin America Daily Briefing; see last week’s AMB)
A new bill in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies would establish the “National Policy for Environmental and Climate Displaced Persons (PNDAC),” reports MigraMundo.
🇺🇾 Uruguay
Nearly 1,000 of those internally displaced in Uruguay by recent floods have returned home, but 2,986 remain internally displaced. (El Observador)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
“Refugee applications fall in Costa Rica in the first three months of 2024,” notes La Prensa, highlighting the role of daily-capped application slots. As La Prensa reports elsewhere, Costa Rica’s Comptroller's Office has pointed out a lack of government capacity and that their audit of the Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) “determined that the DGME has not been effective in the process of granting refuge.”
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
Nicaraguans that leave the country to enter the US through humanitarian parole are reportedly being told by Nicaraguan officials that they won’t be allowed to return to the country, according to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Manuel Orozco. (100%Noticias)
🇸🇻 El Salvador
Some Salvadoran deportees with no criminal ties may be being placed in jail indiscriminately upon their return to El Salvador, according to Salvadoran human rights group Socorro Jurídico Humanitario on Twitter.
🇨🇴 Colombia
“Escalation of violence in Santa Marta leaves 54 displaced” (El Nuevo Siglo)
🇦🇷 Argentina
A CAREF and UNICEF report explores access to rights and protection for migrant children and adolescents in Argentina.
“Argentina: National Resettlement Plan and Complementary Admission Routes to the Argentine Republic for refugees, stateless people and people in need of international protection” (Refworld; via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇺🇸 United States
A Honduran migrant was reportedly killed by a Texas National Guardsman after trying to cross into the US. (El Heraldo de Juárez, Milenio)
Over the past decade, “34% of immigrants in removal proceedings who filed asylum applications were ordered deported while two-thirds (66%) were allowed to remain in the country,” per a TRAC report. However, “Of those allowed to stay, just under half were granted relief,” while many others had their cases administratively closed via prosecutorial discretion by ICE.
“A record number of new migrants has left many with legitimate asylum cases unable to find a lawyer to keep them from being deported,” notes New York Times.
“A new fast-track docket in immigration courts will cut the time it takes to decide asylum claims from years to months for some single adults,” although just 10 judges have been assigned. (AP)
“KQED analyzes the future of the Central American Minors program, which the Biden administration reinstated in 2021. The program’s goal is to allow parents from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador who are already in the United States to have their children join them legally and safely — preempting parents making the difficult decision to put minors in smugglers' hands. The Trump administration had paused the program, and advocates are unsure of its future without congressional intervention… Expanding the program, or implementing one like it, for Haitian children is one of our novel suggestions for how the administration can better respond to the ongoing crisis in Haiti. Read more in our letter to DHS and the State Department,” notes The Forum Daily of the National Immigration Forum.
The Biden administration should “maximize access to asylum at U.S. ports of entry: conduct processing at more ports of entry, ensure access at ports of entry for people who do not have CBP One appointments, and increase the number of CBP One appointments offered,” says Human Rights First. (see last week’s AMB)
🇬🇵 Guadeloupe
29 Haitian migrants arrested off the coast of the French overseas department of Guadeloupe will be allowed to submit asylum applications despite never making it to French soil, according to France-Antilles. Guadeloupe1 says that if the migrants remain detained in the “waiting area,” the conditions in custody must be improved to meet international standards.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
IOM launched a website for the Los Angeles Declaration. (see last week’s AMB on the recent ministerial and new announcements)
Brazil hosted a meeting of the Cartagena+40 Process, agreeing upon the Chilean Action Plan 2024-2034 and discussing the importance of integration-related efforts. (press release)
Bilateral meetings across the region from last week that touched on migration included Mexico-Guatemala, Cuba-Mexico, US-El Salvador, and Suriname-Guyana.
“The diplomatic rift between Mexico and Ecuador leaves Ecuadorean migrants in Mexico in paperwork limbo, reports El País” (via Latin America Daily Briefing). However, Peru will now coordinate to conduct consular representation for Ecuador in Mexico, per Vistazo.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Mexico introduced a new institutional strategy, “The Mexican Model of Human Mobility.” According to a press release, “Its aim is to address migration from a regional perspective, focusing on its structural causes and prioritizing Mexican communities abroad,” including their regularization. (see also El Universal)
Labor Migration
🌎 Regional
ILO launched their 2023-2030 strategy on labor migration in Latin America and the Caribbean last week.
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada’s Ontario province plans to revamp how they compensate injured migrant workers. “the WSIB is reviewing 50 claims dating back to 2007 and will likely be paying out millions in retroactive compensation,” reports CBC.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico’s government has revealed its intentions to recruit an additional 1,200 doctors from Cuba to supplement the existing Cuban workforce in Mexico’s public healthcare sector (Telesur). This decision came following a meeting last Friday between the Mexican Institute of Social Security’s director, Zoé Robledo, and Cuba’s President, Miguel Díaz-Canel,” notes CEDA’s US-Cuba News Brief.
🇸🇻 El Salvador
Salvadoran migration to the US has left the country’s agricultural sector with a lack of labor supply, as has internal migration to work in the country’s tourism sector on the coast. (IPS)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“As of May 8, the number of migrants per day passing through the #DariénGap is modestly declining. The number passing through #Honduras is increasing—perhaps indicating more use of the Nicaragua aerial route,” notes WOLA’s Adam Isacson on Twitter.
A CEPAZ report explores the dangerous migration routes taken by Venezuelans across the Americas.
An IOM report explores migration trends across the Americas in the first quarter of 2024.
🇨🇱 Chile
44,235 migrants entered Chile irregularly in 2023, a drop of 17.8% from 2022. (La Tercera)
Borders and Enforcement
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
Multiple outlets highlighted the universal rejection of Haitian migration by Dominican presidential candidates and the calls to build a border wall and intensify deportations. The New York Times said that the current “immigration crackdown, along with an anticorruption drive and growth in tourism, has made Mr. Abinader, who is seeking a second term, the clear front-runner.” Abinader was ultimately re-elected last night. (see also El País, Acento, Axios)
But many have been concerned about the human rights impacts of the approach. “It is crucial that the next president establishes migration policies that guarantee respect for the dignity and human rights of all people and ensure that Haitians can access international protection. No Haitian national should be returned to Haiti in the face of the crisis that currently threatens their lives,” says Amnesty International.
On a similar note, Telesur notes an “increase in the number of Haitian children who were deported unaccompanied from the neighboring Dominican Republic” is cause for caused concern in the Caribbean nation.
The Caribbean Migrants Observatory (OBMICA) discussed with the BBC human rights concerns and the importance of Haitian migration for the country’s economy.
“A campaign of mass deportations, broadly supported by Dominicans, has left Haitians vulnerable to robbery, extortion, and physical and sexual assault,” says Washington Post, highlighting immigration raids in the tourist hotspot of Punta Cana, where the local economy relies greatly on Haitian migrant labor.
🇨🇱 Chile
Some Chilean truckers have been blockading roads in the north of the country in protest of migration, calling for border closures. (Prensa Latina)
🇲🇽 Mexico
New York Times dives into Mexico’s quiet practice of busing migrants from the north to the south of the country.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Biden administration announced new sanctions and other restrictions on Nicaragua Wednesday, aiming to curb migration to the U.S. southern border and penalize the country for alleged human rights abuses and its close ties to Russia,” reports CBS.
“In 2023, the passage of migrants through Nicaragua generated US$53 million for the regime,” says La Prensa.
“Disrupting Irregular Migration: Best Practices in Response to Recent Developments in the Aviation Sector” (DHS)
“The Biden administration on Wednesday urged a U.S. appeals court to rule that Texas cannot keep a 1,000-foot-long floating barrier in the Rio Grande,” notes Reuters.
🇯🇲 Jamaica
A “National Visa Policy for immigration control and border security management” is currently tabled in the Jamaican Congress. (Radio Jamaica News)
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
Amid declining birth rates in Trinidad and Tobago, some are calling for a more open immigration policy. (Newsday)
La Tercera similarly highlights demographic challenges in Chile, where the country is on the verge of a shrinking population, both due to fertility rates and the departure of migrants in the country.
“Immigration is the demographic savior too many refuse to acknowledge,” particularly when it comes to programs like Social Security and Medicare in the US, according to The Hill.
A CEDA interview explores elder care challenges amid Cuba’s demographic shifts because of emigration and aging.
🇨🇺 Cuba
“Last Thursday, Western Union announced that it had resumed its remittance service from the U.S. to Cuba after a three-month disruption of services (Reuters),” explains CEDA’s US-Cuba News Brief.