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Accepted Paper:

Mexico's National Institute of Migration: between abuse and opacity  
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.

Panel P09
Latin American responses to forced migration: experiences of refugee protection and integration in the region
  Session 1