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- Convenor:
-
Marcia A. Vera Espinoza
(University of Sheffield)
- Location:
- Malet 624
- Start time:
- 4 April, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
The session explores the experiences of protection and integration of asylum seekers and refugees in Latin America, within the programmes emerged from regional responses to forced migration. It will discuss how these initiatives are locally implemented and experienced in Latin American countries.
Long Abstract:
This session explores the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Latin America, within regional responses to forced migration. The panel looks to discuss how these regional initiatives are implemented in Latin American countries, what is their impact and the tensions emerging from it. In a context where the tendency of closed borders is increasing, the challenges of forced migration seem to be on the rise and regional approaches are often considered to be an effective way to achieve durable solutions (UNHCR, 2000). This type of regional approach is not new in Latin America, which main regional instrument is the 1984 Cartagena Declaration. In 2004 twenty countries of the region renewed their commitment to refugee protection through the Mexico Plan of Action (MPA), an agreement seeking to provide a response to the needs of refugees in mixed migration flows in different contexts, such a border and urban areas (White, 2012). At 10 years of the agreement, has the MPA accomplished its commitment? Thepanel invites interdisciplinary interventions addressing some of, but not limited to, these questions: How are these regional agreements being implemented in Latin America? What are the experiences of integration of asylum seekers and refugees in the region? How is national normative framed within these approaches? What impact, if any, do these regional responses have in the integration of refugees? How the notions of integration and citizenship can be understood in this context? The panel aims to contribute to the better understanding of forced migration in Latin America.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Stefania Barichello (School of Advanced Study - University of London)
Paper short abstract:
The MPA defines the lines of a regional plan to protect refugees and proposes the adoption of durable measures in particular to face both situations that need an urgent answer: the increasing flow of refugees in the large urban cores of LA and the enormous number of Colombians in the border zones.
Paper long abstract:
In 2004, the Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action (MPA) was elaborated aiming at analysing the main challenges that refugee protection faced in Latin America. It represents a step forward in strengthening the protection of the human rights and the affirmation of the universality of human dignity. The MPA will express the Latin American solidarity with countries that currently has the highest number of refugees in Latin America and is confronting larger burden on its protection system due to the disproportionally large influxes of Colombian refugees in to its territory.
The MPA is composed of four chapters, which deal with the situation of the refugees in Latin America, the international protection of refugees, the search for durable solutions, and mechanisms of promotion, execution, continuity and evaluation, respectively.
Considering all the above, three programmes were proposed: self-sufficiency and a local integration program called "Solidarity Cities"; an integral program called "Borders of Solidarity"; and the regional program named "Solidarity Resettlement".
The consolidation of the objectives and programs of the MPA carries with it a dual responsibility. The first, of regional character, referring itself to the need of the States to act together to solve the problems considered common, reflecting a notion of international solidarity and shared responsibility. The second responsibility is of international character. The success of the regional program of resettlement in Latin America could encourage similar initiatives in other parts of the world, revealing the importance of cooperation's at regional and intercontinental level.
Marcia A. Vera Espinoza (University of Sheffield)
Paper short abstract:
The paper reviews the refugee resettlement agenda in Latin America by exploring the implementation of the programme in Chile and Brazil. Focusing on Colombians and Palestinians resettled in both countries, the study maps all the actors involved and explores the relationship and tensions among them.
Paper long abstract:
The paper looks to ground the regional resettlement programme by mapping it to its local scales, exploring the roles, relationships and tensions between the actors involved, including the UNHCR, States, NGOs and refugees themselves. By establishing these relationships, and also the processes and stages in resettlement, we aim to explore and assess the implementation of the programme specifically in two spheres: social policy and refugee integration. In this sense, the presentation will explore what is understood by refugee integration and how the emergence of social policy, or the lack of it, plays a role in the process. In addition, the presentation will give an account of the current programmes and its main challenges. The study is based on depth interviews with different stakeholders and a survey implemented to resettled refugees during two separate fieldworks in Chile and Brazil.
The refugee resettlement programme as we know it today emerged after 2004, when twenty Latin American countries strengthened their commitment with refugees by signing the Mexico Plan of Action. One of the declaration proposals was resettlement in solidarity, by which countries of the region compromised to help Colombia's neighbour countries with the massive influx of refugees as a result of the ongoing conflict, through resettlement. The programme was also open to refugees from outside the region. Since then, five countries of Latin America have resettled more than 1.100 refugees, most of them in Chile and Brazil. The paper aims to review how the programme is working and to explore where is heading.
Gabriela Mezzanotti (Unisinos - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos)
Paper short abstract:
Brazilian legislation states that refugees ID card shall not refer to such a person as a refugee, aiming to avoid discrimination. Through the conceptual basis of Bare Life and Biopolitics, the article analyzes the effect of these measures in Refugees' integration in Brazil.
Paper long abstract:
Recent Brazilian legislation states that refugees' official documentation (ID) shall no longer refer that such a person is a refugee. It states that reference is to be made only to Federal Act 9474/97. Such legislation aimed to facilitate Refugees social integration by not making it explicit the refugee status, on the grounds that the lack of knowledge by Brazilian population about the concept of refugees would generate discrimination and could harm the integration process. Initially, this legislation could seem coherent with international refugees law by preventing discrimination. But some might say that avoiding discrimination has more to do with public education than hiding refugees status. The article analyzes whether or not refugees should have the right to be considered as such or their circumstances should be hidden. It reviews the most recent developments in Brazilian Refugee protection, starting on recent implementation of regional committees, such as COMIRAT/RS and statutes. The article also develops a critical analysis of Giorgio Agamben´s concepts of "bare life" and "State of Exception". The article conceives bare life as "specific production of power and not a natural fact", following Agamben´s and Foucault´s ideas, such as biopolitics, which is associated with the modes of government and exercise of power over life and a dimension in which life can be emptied of meaning. Examples of "bare life", in this sense, are human extermination, refugees, victims of ethnic cleansing, victims of human rights violations, in need of humanitarian assistance.
Sonja Wolf (Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia)
Paper short abstract:
This paper is based on an extensive assessment that scrutinizes the procedures and practices of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) and offers recommendations designed to improve its procedures and accountability mechanisms so that migrant rights violations in Mexico might be reduced.
Paper long abstract:
Mexico's National Institute of Migration (INM) is a key actor in the country's migration management and has traditionally been highly opaque. This opacity not only contradicts the entity's transparency obligations, but it also impedes the creation of mechanisms that favor transparency, access to information, and accountability. Earlier research on the INM examined its Migrant Protection Groups (Beta Groups), the conditions and treatment in migrant detention centers, and the INM's budgetary spending, but none had offered a comprehensive analysis of the institution. This paper is based on an extensive assessment that scrutinized the INM's procedures and practices and offered recommendations designed to improve its procedures and accountability so that migrant rights violations in Mexico might be reduced. The research relied on information requests, semi-structured interviews, visits to migrant detention centers, and an analysis of primary and secondary sources as well as quantitative data. The paper evaluates the INM's institutional management and puts forward a number of recommendations aimed at strengthening its accountability in areas such as recruitment, training, sanctions as well as control and supervision. Overall, the paper suggests that the National Institute of Migration requires a fundamental overhaul, while also recognizing that the treatment of migrants will not substantially improve as long as Mexico pursues an essentially restrictive migration policy and acts as a filter for undocumented migrants headed to the United States.
Helia Lopez Zarzosa
Paper short abstract:
OECD Chile is now host of a number of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. However, it has not establish a policy that would guarantee protection and sustainable integration. This paper discusses Chile in this context.
Paper long abstract:
Chile is now amongst the thirty-four countries that conform the OECD, it joined in May 2010. However, most original members of this Organisation and those which joined a few years later, have increasingly become immigration fortresses.
Historically, Chile has been both a receiving and expelling country. The latter migratory experience is found during the Pinochet regime in an unprecedented manner. Forced migration was one of the political features of the Pinochet regime. Both exile and return were managed administratively and legally. Despite that Chile is a signatory to the major international and regional instruments dealing with refugees, it still does not have an explicit migratory policy. What exists is the migratory legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship.
This paper argues that the legacy of domestic historical immigration policies and the current international scenario of increasing securitisation of state borders, particularly in OECD countries, make Chile an unwelcoming host. It therefore asks if there is a correlation between this tightening migratory scenario and the dormant Chilean migration legislation. Given this context, the second question this paper attempts to answer is 'who is doing what?'
The paper draws from my doctoral study on Chilean voluntary repatriation for conceptual analytical tools. My
thesis dealt with both moral and legal obligations.
Because this paper is part of an ongoing research project it will present some preliminary findings including the testing of the conceptual tools employed in the analysis.
Gustavo Simoes (Universidade de Brasilia)
Paper short abstract:
The paper analyzes the national social conferencies between 2003 and 2012 seeking proposals aimed at refugee and migrant populations.
Paper long abstract:
National Social Conferencies has been a democratic tool used by Brazilian Governments since the 1930s. In the last few years there were a large number of national social conferencies in Brazil regarding topics from Regional Development to Human Rights. The paper analyzes the national social conferencies between 2003-2012 seeking proposals aimed at refugee and migrant populations. The objective is to identify these proposals and search the main difficulties refugees and migrants suffer while integrating themselves in Brazilian society. It will also identify the size of inmigration and refugee issues in Brazilian Society. The hypothesis is that Migrants and Refugees issues are not a major concern in Brazil. In order to identify the proposals, the paper will search for those concerning refugees and migrants in all conferencies final reports.