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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“The evidence is clear: migration boosts productivity, stimulates innovation and generates more diverse societies, among other benefits. For people who make the difficult decision to migrate, it opens up new opportunities. However, at the same time, it entails new risks, difficulties and enormous challenges for people who face discrimination, uncertainty and the challenge of integration,” writes UNDP.
The World Bank’s World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies includes background papers on the Caribbean, Colombia, and Mexico.
🇺🇾 Uruguay
Uruguay’s Ministry of Social Development is set to establish a pilot project to create a “one-stop shop” reference and orientation center for migrants. The center will provide services for access to documentation and academic and professional title recognition, as well as a three month pension as a part of a “temporary housing response,” reports El País.
🇨🇴 Colombia
“The inclusion of the migrant population must also be a peace-building agenda that avoids double affectation due to the armed conflict… In 2022 alone, the Ombudsman's Office issued 15 early warnings about the effects on Venezuelan migrants due to the reconfiguration of (Colombia’s armed) conflict, mainly in contexts of illicit economies associated with human trafficking and sexual exploitation,” says Fundación Ideas para la Paz, noting that Venezuelan migration to Colombia picked up only after the signing of the 2016 Peace Accord in the country. Armed conflict remains ongoing in Colombia.
🇨🇼🇦🇼 Aruba and Curaçao
Aruba and Curaçao “find themselves on the forgotten front lines of a protracted displacement crisis with few resources with which to address a continued—and relatively huge—flow of people to their countries,” says CSIS, covering the two islands’ experiences receiving Venezuelan migrants and refugees and the lack of opportunities for regularized status in either country.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
“Due to high demand, appointments for foreign nationals to submit biometrics at the Ministry of Justice are currently difficult to obtain. The delays affect all foreign nationals applying for initial visas or residence permits in Costa Rica, who must submit biometrics after their visa or residence is approved, and before they can apply for their initial Residence Identity Card (DIMEX),” notes Fragomen, highlighting that this may impact access to certain services.
The UN has published a series of first person stories from immigrants in Costa Rica about their diverse experiences in the country.
🇨🇱 Chile
As of April 22, expired Venezuelan passports are no longer accepted as documentation for entry or exit from Chile, says InfoMigra.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
UNHCR highlights support networks facilitating integration of refugees in Ecuador, noting the importance of physical and food security for integration, among other issues.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies has published a new report that “covers the legal and policy context of the Biden administration’s proposed ‘asylum ban’ and highlights nine transit countries' inability to protect asylum seekers. It also provides recommendations to the U.S. government based on its legal and moral obligations to refugees.” They write, “Our analysis of nine major transit countries – Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador – reveals that they cannot be considered ‘safe third countries’ for asylum seekers… the asylum systems in most of these countries are either overwhelmed or almost non-existent, leading to significant challenges in accessing protection.”
“Chile's government said that 115 Venezuelan migrants who had been stranded on the border with Peru were repatriated to Venezuela on a humanitarian flight Sunday,” reports Reuters.
Chile had confirmed the planned flight on May 4, as per AFP, although not all the stranded migrants have been repatriated; “Groups of Venezuelans, Haitians and Colombians have spent more than two weeks stuck in the border area after leaving Arica in northern Chile because Peru refused to let them continue into the town of Tacna, alleging they lacked the necessary documentation.”
On May 4, Amnesty International wrote an open letter to the presidents of both Chile and Peru calling for the two countries to respect the human rights and international protection rights of the stranded migrants. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also expressed concern, notes VOA.
El País has published an explainer on the situation at the Chile-Peru border.
Some Venezuelans have been observed attempting to exit Chile by transiting through Bolivia, given the blockade at the Peruvian border, notes T13.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico’s national immigration agency said authorities had freed 2,115 migrants of all nationalities kidnapped by gangs in 2022,” reports AP, noting that 10 Colombians were successfully freed from an abduction in northern Mexico last week; “Gangs and cartels appear to be increasingly charging migrants fees to cross Mexico, and then kidnapping them for ransom. There have been a string of such mass migrant abductions in Mexico in recent months.”
Nearly 19,000 Haitians applied for asylum in Mexico in the first four months of 2023, reports AP, noting that the figure is greater than the number of Haitians to apply for asylum in the country over the entirety of 2022.
Mexico’s National Population Council has published a new three-part report on internal displacement in Central-West Mexico
🇺🇸 United States
“At least seven people were killed and at least 10 were injured Sunday in Brownsville, Texas, when an SUV struck a crowd waiting for a bus outside a migrant shelter,” reports The Washington Post.
American Immigration Council has published a new report on revamping the US asylum and humanitarian protection system. Recommendations include to “Expand Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations’ capacity to process asylum seekers at ports of entry in a timely, orderly, and fair manner, and publicize this route;” to “Establish a Center for Migrant Coordination to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts to support newly arrived migrants and reduce impacts on local communities;” and to “Begin clearing immigration court asylum backlogs through the use of prosecutorial discretion.”
“The asylum system needs reform, as the Menendez Plan calls for, but it also needs pressure relief. Relief that will only come from expanding flexible, legal pathways for migrants and asylum seekers,” write Dan Restrepo and Marshall Fitz at El País in an endorsement of the Menendez Plan and the Los Angeles Declaration.
“Though Title 42 is set to end May 11, seeking asylum at the border could end up being no less challenging due to a range of policy proposals put forth by the Biden administration,” writes WOLA’s Stephanie Brewer at World Politics Review.
WOLA discusses a recent visit to the Honduras-Nicaragua border region, arguing that the US policy of deterrence does not work. They note, “We found… A Honduran policy that refuses to detain or deport migrants in nearly all cases: a recognition of reality that has reduced the reach of organized crime.”
Colombia “temporarily suspended a program to return Colombian nationals found by immigration officers at the U.S. border with Mexico, it said on (May 4), citing cruel and degrading treatment and last-minute flight cancellations,” reports Reuters. Flights are set to resume this week, according to Al Jazeera.
The US has announced new changes to the CBP One App. MPI’s Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh writes on Twitter, “The most significant of the new CBP One app changes announced today is the prioritizing of those registered the longest, though an increase to 1,000 appointments a day remains insufficient for the demand.”
“The Biden administration is planning to allow tens of thousands of Afghans brought to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover of their homeland to apply to stay and work in the country legally for at least another two years, as efforts in Congress to legalize them have stalled,” reports CBS.
🇧🇸 The Bahamas
UNHCR “has urged The Bahamas not to detain asylum-seekers in custody and to find alternative ways of accommodating them,” reports The Tribune.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The US, Spain, and Canada have announced a joint commitment to work together on migration issues in Latin America, including promoting and expanding labor migration pathways. Each country outlined specific goals, with Canada planning to “explore further humanitarian pathways to welcome more displaced persons from the Americas to be employed in Canada. This includes the recently expanded Economic Mobility Pathway Pilot which provides an additional pathway for skilled refugees and other displaced people to immigrate to Canada through economic pathways.”
“Mexico will continue to accept back migrants on humanitarian grounds” from the US, among other agreements from a joint humanitarian plan on migration (press release) that also mentions that the US “intends to welcome as many as 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador under the family reunification parole processes” announced recently (see last week’s AMB).
MPI’s Julia Gelatt on Twitter breaks down the numbers on family sponsorship petitions, explaining that a potential range of 284,000 to 456,000 people may be eligible for the process, which also includes Haitians, Cubans, and Colombians.
A new International Migration Review paper argues that from 2015-2019, “increased power of ‘securitist’ actors within national bureaucracies shaped migration policy change” in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
🇵🇪🇪🇨 Ecuador and Peru
“The authorities of Peru and Ecuador promised to sign a binational agreement to deal with the increase in migrant trafficking, a crime that has intensified by 500% in the last eight years,” reports SwissInfo.
🇭🇳🇸🇻 El Salvador and Honduras
Honduran and Salvadoran officials met last week and discussed a potential bilateral agreement on migration, noting the importance of the Trifinio region that intersects both countries. (La Noticia)
🇺🇸🇵🇦 Panama and United States
Panama’s foreign minister will visit the US today to discuss migration, among other topics. (La Estrella de Panamá)
🇨🇷🇵🇦 Panama and Costa Rica
Panama and Costa Rica have discussed migration issues during recent bilateral talks, including migration of Panamanians for agricultural work in Costa Rica. The two countries are also planning new port of entry infrastructure at Paso Canoas. (EFE, Mundiario)
Labor Migration
🇦🇷🇧🇷 Brazil and Argentina
Many young Argentines from the Misiones province in the north of the country are reportedly emigrating to Brazil to work, causing a labor shortage in the agricultural sector.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“This talking point about a ‘95% drop in border migrant encounters from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela’’ is problematic,” writes Adam Isacson, explaining that even though migrant encounters have dropped at the US-Mexico border, migration has continued unabated throughout Mexico and Central America: “the expulsions have absolutely not deterred these nations’ citizens from migrating. They’re still fleeing—but they’re stranded.”
IOM has published a series of several Displacement Tracking Matrixes (DTMs). They are for Mexico (Tapachula, Tenosique, Reynosa, Matamoros), Ecuador (1, 2, 3), El Salvador (San Antonio Pajonal, Meanguera Del Golfo La Unión, Pasaquina), Colombia, and Haiti.
🇵🇦 Panama
127,678 migrants traveled through the Darien Gap in the first four months of 2023—six times more than over the same period in 2022. Venezuelans (57,054), Haitians (17,142), and Ecuadorians (17,142) were the leading nationalities. (La Prensa)
Borders and Enforcement
🌎 Regional
Discussing the 60-day US-Colombia-Panama joint operation to crack down on migration through the Darien Gap, Pirate Wire Services explains, “So far, residents and journalists working in the region told PWS that the initiative, which officially began on April 20th, has been limited to the waterways around the Darien, rather than within the jungle corridor itself. But a briefing by White House officials on April 14th suggested that once Title 42 expires, the operation will become more aggressive.”
The Border Chronicle covers the externalization of US border enforcement, detailing US efforts to support and promote enforcement in Mexico and Central America and arguing that the Darien Gap “is becoming a new layer of U.S. border,” helping keep border politics away from attention and the press in the US so that “Border enforcement becomes out of sight, out of mind.”
Demographic Trends
🇺🇸 United States
“A decade ago, it was a safe bet that anyone stopped by U.S. authorities at the southern border was probably Mexican. That’s no longer the case… Now, people come from dozens of countries, with large showings from Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, India, Russia and elsewhere. Only about a third are from Mexico — down from 85% in 2011,” reports AP, additionally outlining pathways to entry for various nationalities.
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
An estimated 38% of Nicaraguan families have been split up as a result of family members emigrating between 2018 and 2023, reports Artículo66.
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
IMI reports on regional citizenship by investment programs (CIP), noting that Dominica had the “most efficient processing” according to surveyed executives assisting clients with CIP programs. While Saint Kitts and Nevis had the joint-best selling program among surveyed firms, their popularity is reportedly expected to decline next year, with Saint Lucia’s CIP program expected to gain in popularity.
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
The Inter-American Dialogue has published a presentation on Nicaraguan migration, covering increasing remittances and migration to the US and Costa Rica. 80% of remittances come from the US, 8% from Costa Rica, and 6% from Spain.
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Emigration is causing a labor shortage in Guatemala, reports DW, noting that some employers are increasingly turning to female workers to fill the gap.
Thank you for reading the Americas Migration Brief. Please fill out this anonymous, 45-second survey to help me better understand the readership and measure the impact of the newsletter.
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