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In this edition:
- Editorial: Important events in the second semester of 2016
- XVIII Jornadas Migratorias, Santiago de Chile (24-25 August)
- Release of the Advocacy Paper: “Migration and Citizenship at the Service of People: Advances and Setbacks in the Americas” (September)
- MADE Americas Regional Meeting, Asunción, Paraguay (1-2 November)
- Regional Network of the Civil Organizations for Migrations (RROCM) Annual Assembly, (12-14 November) and XXI Regional Conference on Migrations (CRM), San Pedro Sula, Honduras (15-18 November)
- Follow up on the definition of the Migration Bill in Paraguay
- Voting of the new Migration Bill in Brazil: a huge step forward for migrant people in the country
- Civil Society Days of the Global Forum on Migration and Development – GFMD, Dhaka, Bangladesh (8-9 December)
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Welcome to MADE Americas!
The MADE Americas programme, active since January 2014, has contributed to the strengthening of civil society networks and their advocacy activities surrounding migration and development policies within the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.
MADE Americas is one regional part of the global project Migration and Development (MADE). The Scalabrini International Migration Network - SIMN, through the Scalabrini Foundation (Fundación Scalabrini) and the International Network of Migration and Development (INMD /Red Internacional de Migración y Desarrollo – RIMD), have been working and participating together in the activities presented in this second newsletter of 2016.
In this edition:
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Editorial: Important events in this second semester of 2016
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| A number of events involving the MADE Americas partners occurred during the second half of this year.
In Chile, the XVIII Jornadas Migratorias (national annual conference on migration issues) took place on August 24th and 25th in the city of Santiago. To mitigate the years-long wait for a new Migration Bill, the Jornadas presented this year some governmental and non-governmental actors from various areas that are contributing to a joint work towards a multi-sectorial management of migrations in the country. In September, the SIMN published its Advocacy Paper “Migration and Citizenship at the Service of People: Advances and Setbacks in the Americas”, inspired from the results that came out of the last National Multi-Stakeholder Meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR). At the regional level and as part of the MADE advocacy activities, the Scalabrini Foundation organized the third MADE Americas Regional Meeting in Asunción, Paraguay. The first day was dedicated to the “Satellite Meeting” for the GFMD, and the second one, to the redaction of a joint Civil Society Declaration to be presented to the members of the XVI South American Conference on Migrations (CSM for its initials in Spanish) on the following days. Going further north, the countries of Central America had their XXI Regional Conference on Migrations (CRM) on December 15th to 18th in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, preceded by the annual assembly of the Regional Network of Civil Organizations on Migrations (RROCM), which took place in the same city.
Further on, you will be informed on the progresses and projections of the Migration Bills in Paraguay and Brazil, where the SIMN is actively involved in the negotiation and definition processes with the members of their respective governments. Finally, we will present to you some results of the 2016 GFMD Civil Society Days that took place on December 8th and 9th in Dhaka, Bangladesh. |
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XVIII Jornadas Migratorias: “Immigration, Integration and Multiculturalism; the necessity of a multi sectorial management”, August 24th and 25th, Santiago de Chile
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Pursuing the improvement – facing the evidence that none of the sectors of society can, by itself, provide a complete and integral answer to immigration – the Jornadas Migratorias this year seeked to underline the need to address this social phenomenon from an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional perspective.
The Jornadas is an initiative of the Chilean Catholic Migration Institute (INCAMI), an independent organ of the Chilean Episcopal Conference, and the SIMN, with the collaboration of the MADE Network, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Consular Policy Director, the Ministry of Interior and Public Security through the Migration and Foreign Department (DEM), the Honorable Senate of the Republic and the International Organization for Migrations (IOM). The event presented speeches from Jaime Esponda from IOM Chile, Mons. Galo Fernandez, President of INCAMI, Father Flor María Rigoni, who has a significant experience working with migrants on the USA-Mexico border, two representatives of local governments of two municipalities of Santiago, Fedérico Agustí, Director of the International and Social Department of the National Direction of Migrations (DNM) of Argentina, Rodrigo Sandoval, Director of the Migration Department (DEM) of the Ministry of Interior and Public Security.
Also for the first time, the Jornadas presented an actor from the private sector, Mr. Marco Antonio González, Manager of Public Policies of the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SOFOFA: an association of all the important manufacturers in Chile), who discussed the institution’s perception of immigration as a labour workforce and the challenges brought by its integration. He mentioned SOFOFA as being enthusiastic about immigration and wanting to transmit this favourable attitude the corporate entity has towards it. The DEM Director mentioned that a project is being realized, together with President Michelle Bachelet and the Productivity Commission, where one of the main topics is to facilitate the movement of people and the recognition of foreign diplomas, which would mean a step towards better integration of migrants in Chile. However, more changes and improvements to the Chilean migration policy are still hoped for.
Read more on the XVIII Jornadas Migratorias on Fundación Scalabrini’s website (in Spanish)
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Publication of the Advocacy Paper: “Migration and Citizenship to the Service of People: Advances and Setbacks in the Americas” by the SIMN, September 2016
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The paper “Migration and Citizenship to the Service of People: Advances and Setbacks in the Americas” aims to reflect on the impact of citizenship policies on access to the benefits and responsibilities of a given country. It examines the advances and setbacks in the Americas and how each model benefits or takes away the human rights of the individuals. The text was prepared by Mr. Kevin Appleby, Director of International Policy of the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) and the SIMN, with the contribution of Dr. Diego Acosta, Senior Lecturer in European and Migration Law, University of Bristol, and edited by Leonir Chiarello, Executive Director of the SIMN and Gabrielle Parenteau, MADE Americas’ Program Coordinator at the Scalabrini Foundation in Santiago de Chile.
Some elements were included from the presentations of the last National Multi-Stakeholder Meeting, disseminated in the first biannual newsletter of this year, as a contribution from the current facts that are happening in the DR and to provide visibility to the claims of the people affected by the processes of naturalization, regularization and denationalization, that present important implementation failures. The document was released for the first time during the Shadow Meeting organized by the CMS on September 20th in New York, following the UNGA High Level Summit on Refugees and Migrations. It was then distributed during the MADE Americas Regional Event. |
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MADE Americas Regional Meeting, November 1/2, Asunción, Paraguay
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The Scalabrini Foundation in Chile and the SIMN organized on November 1st and 2nd of 2016 the third MADE Americas Regional Meeting, named “Civil Society and Migration Policies in the Region: consolidating proposals for the South American Migration Conference (CSM) and the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)”, the objective of was to support, strengthen and empower the capacities of Civil Society networks and organizations of Latin America to work towards proposals to governments and joint actions on migrations. The event took place at the Gran Hotel de Paraguay in Asunción and enjoyed the participation of representatives of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico; among them, members of civil society organizations who work in migrations, leaders of international organizations and Governments members. The event started on November 1st with the GFMD “Satellite” Meeting, the objective of which was to facilitate the Civil Society organizations’ participation in the GFMD previously to its official realization and to give a space to those who will not attend the event in Dhaka through the elaboration of proposals to be brought and presented during the work sessions of the Forum. On that occasion, Claudia León, from the International Network for Migration and Development (INMD), presented to the Civil Society participants the last regional report named “Avoiding the "trap": Linking the Global with the National and the Non-Binding with the Binding”, aiming to “show in an implicit way how we can clearly link what is discussed in the non-binding processes, such as the agreements made in the Conferencia Regional de Migración (CRM) and the Conferencia Suramericana sobre Migraciones (CSM) and others that came out more recently through the GFMD, as the Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative (MICIC), with those that are compulsory to the States such as the UN Committees”, for example.
On November 2nd a MADE Americas Regional Meeting took place, with the objective to formulate proposals and prepare the intervention of two CS representatives in the CSM, to be held during the following days. That second day of the meeting were presented speeches from Jorge Gurrieri of the IOM Regional Office for South America; Juan Emilio Oviedo, Technical Secretary of the Mercosur Permanent Tribunal; Gabriela Pizarro Rodríguez, President of the International Center for Migrants’ Human Rights (CIDEHUM) in Costa Rica and; Hugo Oddone, expert in populations and development.
The second day of the meeting was concluded by the general approbation of the Civil Society Declaration towards the XVI CSM, which is currently being reviewed by its Technical Secretary, with the objective of including it in the Conference Official Act. On November 4th, two CS representatives from the MADE Network, Leonir Chiarello (SIMN) and Claudia León (INMD), spoke during the CSM, reiterating the importance of the CSM Action Plan and of the concrete implementation of actions to protect migrant people’s rights in border areas, for example.
On November 3rd and 4th, in the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, took place the XVI South American Conference on Migrations entitled “Toward free movement” (Hacía el libre tránsito). During those days, the members States, presided this year by Paraguay and supported by the IOM as the Technical Secretary, carried out discussions on 4 main topics: 1) Follow-up of the South American Plan on the Human Development of Migrations; 2) Migrations and South American integration; 3) Strengthening of migrations management; 4) International projection of the South American region. It is according to these 4 main topics that the Civil Society realized its work on the definition of proposals during the MADE Americas regional meeting.
Stay tuned for the release of the Civil Society Declaration before the XVI CSM that will be available and published by the MADE Network as soon as its integration to the CSM Act will be completed. |
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Regional Network of the Civil Organizations for Migrations (RROCM) Annual Assembly, November 12-14, and XXI Regional Conference on Migrations (CRM), November 15-18, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
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The RROCM organized its annual Assembly on November 12th to 14th in San Pedro Sula, before the XXI CRM annual meeting that took place during the following days at same location. The Assembly gathered civil society organizations from North and Central America such as the Canadian Council for Refugees (Canadá), Alianza Américas (USA), INCEDES (Guatemala), Pastoral de Movilidad Humana (Guatemala), FONAMIH (Honduras), GMIES (El Salvador), NicasMigrantes (Nicaragua), CIDEHUM (Costa Rica), MENAMIRE-CEALP (Panama) y MANAMIRD (Dominican Republic). In its Declaration presented during the following days to the CRM member States, the RROCM reiterated the necessity to address migrations from these thematic aspects:
- Visibility for migrants, so that they are recognized and treated as entitled to human rights, with no regard to their migration status.
- Acknowledgement of migrants’ contribution to the communities and countries of origin, transit and destination.
- Strengthening of migrants’ organization and participation in the processes to define public policies.
The RROCM Declaration was presented to the CRM meeting that took place on November 15th to 18th in the Centro Social Hondureño Árabe of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The meeting named: “Migration: a shared responsibility” gathered Civil Society representatives, International Organizations (IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF, ILO and ICRC) and States from North and Central America, making the conference a tripartite discussion on the protection of the most vulnerable migrants and towards the strengthening of the shared responsibility to improve migration governance. Discussions and working sessions were undertaken, according to the core topics of Policy and Migration Management, Migration and Development and Human Rights, which were concluded by a vice-ministerial meeting (one part accessible by live streaming and the other part in a closed-door session) and the formulation of the Declaration. |
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Follow-up on the definition of the Migration Bill in Paraguay
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F. Jairo Guidini, Director of the Scalabrini Foundation for Migrations in Paraguay, tells us about the progress regarding the definition of the Migration Bill in the country: “We are following up on the Migration Bill here in Paraguay. With the participation of the Federacion de Inmigrantes en Paraguay (FEDIPAR) together with the Scalabrini Foundation for Migrations, we encouraged the elaboration of a Public Policy on Migrations in Paraguay, which still did not have any defined and written policy on the topic. […] We are expecting the approbation of the new Law for this year. We will meet again with FEDIPAR (Federación de Inmigrantes en Paraguay) to give some suggestions which we think are important. We think it is important that the civil society’s participation in the elaboration of the new Bill is being consolidated.”
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Voting of the new Migration Bill in Brazil: a huge step forward for migrant people in the country
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