Americas Migration Brief - September 9, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
The R4V 2024 Refugee and Migrant Needs Analysis focused on Venezuelan migrants across Latin America and the Caribbean identifies migrant needs and the current state of integration and protection, including indicators such as health, education, and food security. 4.2 million Venezuelans across the region are reportedly in need of support. (report, El Pitazo)
🇦🇷 Argentina
“Argentina will allow the entry and regularization of Venezuelan migrants whose documents have expired” for up to 10 years, reports EFE.
An R4V report explores documentation, housing, access to education and health care, and other indicators for Venezuelans, Colombians, Cubans, Dominicans, and Haitians in Argentina.
🇧🇿 Belize
Belize issued permanent residency cards awarded through the country’s Amnesty Program for migrant regularization that concluded last year with 12,765 applications. The ceremony was celebrated by UNHCR in a press release. (see also Channel 5)
🇨🇴 Colombia
Vanguardia highlights the importance of education for the integration of Venezuelan migrant children in Bucaramanga, Colombia, noting that “one of the main challenges is that of “overage” students, those who, having interrupted their education in Venezuela, are in school grades below their age. This affects their self-esteem and, in some cases, leads them to drop out.” Two successful strategies to try to counteract this in Bucaramanga have been “personalized support and academic leveling.”
A UNDP paper analyzes migrants’ role in the Barranquilla, Colombia labor market.
🇧🇷 Brazil
MigraMundo reviews the migration policy proposals of the candidates for mayor in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and leading destination for migrants.
With more than 7,000 Venezuelans living in shelters in the border state of Roraima, it is the Brazilian state with the highest number of individuals living in shelters or other temporary housing, according to newly released data from the 2022 census. (g1)
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
Activist Yesenia Gonzalez criticized authorities’ attempts to blame migrants for crime in Trinidad and Tobago, arguing that recent public comments amount to discrimination and “will create more xenophobia.” (Newsday)
🇪🇨 Ecuador
IOM and UNHCR “praised Ecuador’s new presidential decree introducing an extraordinary regularization process for Venezuelans and their families who currently lack regular status in the country. This initiative is expected to benefit some 100,000 people.” (press release; see AMB 8/26/24)
🇺🇸 United States
“According to a new study from the American Immigration Council and the city of Dallas, immigrants there contributed about $1 billion in state and local taxes and billions more in spending power, reports Abraham Nudelstejer of The Dallas Morning News” (via The Forum Daily)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“The crews of Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos and Dominican Republic Navy patrol boat Capella rescued 20 migrants from a disabled vessel taking on water in the Atlantic Ocean.” (press release)
🇨🇺 Cuba
“At least 142 Cuban rafters have died this year trying to reach Miami” (El País; via CEDA’s US-Cuba News Brief. See last week’s AMB on regional deaths and disappearances at sea)
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
3 Venezuelan migrants—including one minor—were rescued after being kidnapped and human trafficked in Trinidad and Tobago. (El Nacional)
🇭🇹 Haiti
““Unrelenting gang warfare in Port-au-Prince is fueling an exodus of people from Haiti’s capital, overwhelming already impoverished cities and towns and sparking fears that the gangs will follow,” reports the Washington Post.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“The Federal Court ruled on Thursday (5) that three groups of immigrants held at Guarulhos International Airport… cannot be automatically repatriated despite new rules that prevent people in transit and without a visa from seeking refuge in Brazil,” reports Folha, noting that the 3 groups of 70 total migrants were mainly from Vietnam and Nepal. (see last week’s AMB)
An IOM policy brief explores developing public policies at the municipal level to respond to the impact of climate change on human mobility.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Migrants waiting to enter the US through the CBP One app are increasingly waiting in Mexico City for an appointment. Their growing numbers have led to “the emergence of migrant encampments throughout the Mexican capital where thousands of migrants wait weeks — even months — in limbo, living in crowded, makeshift camps with poor sanitation and grim living conditions,” reports AP.
As CBP One access has now been expanded to southern Mexico, the Mexican government is set to provide “escorted bus rides” to the US-Mexico border for those with an appointment. Many migrants have faced kidnappings and other dangers en route north through the country. (AP)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Biden administration is considering actions that would make President Biden’s tough but temporary asylum restrictions almost impossible to lift,” reports New York Times, explaining, “Under the June order, the restrictions on asylum would lift when the number of people trying to cross illegally each day drops below 1,500 for one week… Now, administration officials want to extend the required period of lower crossings to several weeks.”
USCIS is opening an international field office in Quito, Ecuador “to support refugee processing in Ecuador and the Americas, facilitate family reunification, and maintain programs that strengthen (the US) immigration system.” This is the 12th international field office globally, but the only one in South America. (press release)
“At a time of near-record high migrant deaths on the U.S. side of the border, an investigation by Tanvi Misra at High Country News explored the complexities of Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program: “some aid workers and border researchers see a conflict of interest between the agency’s primary mandate, which is to detain and deport migrants, and the humanitarian goal of saving lives.” Records show a surprisingly small number of 911 calls from migrants appearing to result in rescue missions.” (High Country News; via Daily Border Links)
A Cardozo School of Law report published last week indicates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not providing sufficient translation services to detainees in its facilities, breaking its own rules and federal law, reports Andrea Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. (via The Forum Daily)
“An American Immigration Council analysis disputed the DHS Inspector General’s August 19 finding that 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children did not show up to their immigration court dates after crossing the border and entering U.S. custody. Much of the problem, it finds, has to do with paperwork and the byzantine bureaucratic requirements that children are expected to navigate, usually without attorneys. “The Inspector General’s analysis fails to explore any potential explanations for why the children were unaccounted for, recklessly suggesting that the children’s safety may be in question.” (American Immigration Council; 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 despite some regional drops in migration heading north, “Mexico’s migrant encounters remain near all-time highs… In July, for the first time, Mexico’s migrant encounters exceeded U.S. authorities’ southern-border encounter.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Latin America should unite around a shared response to Venezuelan displacement amid the current post-election crisis, emphasizing a humanitarian and pragmatic approach, writes Omar Hammoud-Gallego at El Comercio.
A Wisconsin International Law Journal paper explores foreign policy collaborations geared towards migration management across the Americas. (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
🇪🇸🇬🇹 Guatemala and Spain
“On August 31, Spain's Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) published a labor migration agreement signed by Spain and Guatemala in January 2023. The agreement seeks to regulate the migration flows between the two countries, promote economic development, deepen bilateral cooperation, and prevent irregular migration,” explains Eric Sigmon on LinkedIn, adding Spain has labor and other migration-related agreements with several other countries in the hemisphere.
🇨🇳🇺🇸 United States and China
Foreign Policy highlights US-China relations and renewed cooperation on deportation flights, writing that despite “recalcitrance,” China has recently allowed deportation flights and greater dialogue in part because “For the leaders in Beijing, the optics of tens of thousands of people leaving has been embarrassing.”
🇳🇱🇸🇷 Suriname and Netherlands
“Suriname diaspora has urged the government to work on visa-free travel for Surinamese to the Netherlands. The Surinamese community in the Netherlands is increasingly growing, reaching nearly 360,000,” reports Schengen News.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Outgoing foreign minister Alicia Bárcena presented a book on Mexico’s migration strategy, the “Mexican Model of Human Mobility,” which is meant to continue as an institutional plan. The model “includes investing $133 million in countries of origin, creating two new care centers in Chiapas, and the safe transfer to the northern border of migrants with an asylum appointment in the United States,” reports El País. (see also press release, AMB 5/20/24)
Labor Migration
🇺🇸 United States
“A Bloomberg editorial this month brought much-needed attention to some of the flaws in the H-1B visa program, particularly the inefficiencies of the lottery system for allocating the limited number of visas available each year… even beyond the numeric levels, like the other temporary worker visa categories, the H-1B program is rigid, outdated, and unresponsive to the U.S. economy’s labor demands,” writes Marshall Fitz at the Emerson Collective Immigration Update.
“In a new report, the National Academy of Sciences warns policymakers that America cannot retain top talent without changes to the U.S. immigration system,” reports Forbes, noting that the Department of Defense-authorized report “concludes that talent programs in China and countries with more liberalized immigration policies threaten America’s ability to attract and retain talented foreign-born scientists and engineers.”
“The Midwest cities in search of new migrants: Although immigration remains hugely controversial, a number of places in Republican-dominated areas are eager for an influx of workers” (FT)
🇨🇦 Canada
“A team of university researchers is launching a tool kit to create an alternative to improve the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers in Canada. The proposed fair farmwork certification is designed to complement authorities’ enforcement of employment standards, a stick that’s imperfect at best. The certification is meant to be the carrot, rewarding operators who treat their employees well and helping them attract and retain workers in an industry with chronic labour shortages,” explains Toronto Star.
🇻🇨 St. Vincent and the Grenadines
A recent op-ed by a physician in St. Vincent and the Grenadines criticized a lack of English-language skills among Cuban doctors working in the country, highlighting the potential dangers the inability to communicate presents and calling for new regulations on foreign doctors working in the country to ensure English language proficiency.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
In These Times explores the migration journey across the Americas (and globe) en route to the US from India. The article also highlights persecution faced by some Indians, particularly Sikhs in Punjab state.
In addition, “The number of undocumented Indians crossing from Canada into the United States on foot has reached an unprecedented high, raising serious concerns about the efficacy of Canada’s visa screening process. In June alone, 5,152 undocumented Indians crossed the border, surpassing the number entering from Mexico—a route historically associated with illegal crossings,” per Financial Express.
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Data from the Federal Police and the UN Migration Agency show that the flow of immigrants entering Roraima increased by 28% one month after the elections in Venezuela - almost 11 thousand,” reports g1.
🇲🇽 Mexico
AP highlights growing Chinese migration to Mexico: “A deep-rooted diaspora that has fostered strong family and business networks over decades makes Mexico appealing for new Chinese arrivals; so does a growing presence of Chinese multinationals in Mexico, which have set up shop to be close to markets in the Americas.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇵🇦 Panama
“Panama on Friday deported 130 Indian irregular migrants who had entered the country via the inhospitable Darien jungle, under a deal on repatriations signed with the United States in July.” (AFP; see last week’s AMB)
🇨🇱 Chile
Chile began to implement a new $22 million investment in biometric registration and immigration control at its northern border last week. It is “the largest investment in equipment and technology on the northern border in recent years.” (EFE)
More on Migration
🇵🇪 Peru
An Ipsos poll finds that 57% of Peruvians want to migrate. 46% cited economic reasons as their chief motivator, followed by 16% citing insecurity. “Even still, only 17% of respondents have a concrete plan to leave Peru,” notes Infobae.
🇻🇪 Venezuela
New York Times highlights the impact of mass emigration—25% of the population—from Venezuela’s second-largest city, Maracaibo.