ontrary to mainstream beliefs in the United States, not all migration within the Western Hemisphere ends in North America. In fact, migration within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has more than doubled since 2010 and in certain instances outpaces immigration from the region to the United States. The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis, Central American gang violence, and economic hardships exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic all increased migration flows throughout the region. Much reporting is done on the percentage of these migrants heading to North America, but little is said about the millions granted asylum and other legal migration paths within South America itself. Over the last 10 years, countries like Peru and Colombia, albeit with policy limitations, have found effective and humane ways to address irregular migration. In fact, these Latin American countries can serve as a guiding example to find a path forward on migration within the continent and beyond.
Policy Avenues Forward Already Exist
The gold standard immigration response remains Colombia’s 10-year residence permit for Venezuelan migrants started by former President Iván Duque in February 2021. The program aims to provide legal status to nearly two million Venezuelans taking refuge in the country, giving them access to work, healthcare, financing opportunities, and education for up to 10 years. As with any large public policy initiative, there have been concerns about the Colombian government’s capacity to provide services at such a large scale. Overall, however, the program has been viewed positively and even received significant non-governmental funding. The World Bank found that immediate impacts of the program included a 40% increase in access to state services, a 64% increase in access to financial services, and a 10% increase in labor formalization. Peru, the second largest host of Venezuelan emigrants, offers a similar, but shorter, one-year, temporary residence permit with similar successes and challenges.
While regularization in both Peru and Colombia has given thousands of migrants legal access to education, employment, and healthcare, it still does not guarantee integration. Venezuelan migrants with legal status in both Colombia and Peru still face discrimination when trying to enter the formal labor market. They do not always understand the services available to them, and disinformation can cause further confusion in the already complicated processes of accessing services. In response to these limitations, Peru itself has even reversed course and begun restrictive migration policies such as the requirement of passports and criminal records at the border. Although these are difficult policy challenges, they can be addressed with coordination and joint efforts between state agencies, the private sector, and civil society. Nevertheless, the programs are still proof that pragmatic pathways already exist to address regional migration. The question that remains: What factors need to be in place to ensure the adoption and successes of similar migration programs?
Necessary Factor No. 1: Political Consensus
Historically, political instability throughout the LAC region has made it difficult for governments to work together on complicated issues, with irregular migration at the top of the list. However, recent elections have brought to power several like-minded leaders in key countries. The elections of Chile’s Gabriel Boric, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have ushered in what many political analysts are calling the New Pink Tide, a reference to the wave of left-wing governments that came to power in the region at the start of this century. Leftist governments also lead Mexico and Argentina, two other key players in the region. Although there are some disagreements, similar ideological thinking among these governments could make it easier for them to cooperate in expanding already-existing legal migration programs. The current wave of democratically-elected and like-minded leaders thus provides a unique opportunity to continue expanding legal migration pathways.
Necessary Factor No. 2: Money
Implementing legal mobility projects at-scale requires large amounts of resources and funds, which are scarce for many LAC governments. Luckily, there are regional and international institutions states can lean on for guidance and funding. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Migration Initiative helps LAC countries by providing financial and non-financial instruments (grants and research), leveraging investments (from member countries, the international community, and civil society), and scaling innovative solutions (such as using virtual learning to create a mass of public officials that can create effective interventions on the issue of migration). The initiative aims to contribute to migrants’ successful integration to their host communities.
Spain’s upcoming European Union presidency also offers states in the LAC region funding and partnership opportunities. Madrid will take over the rotating presidency in July and has already highlighted a desire for closer relations with LAC. To that end, the EU is finalizing trade deals with Mexico, Chile, and the South American customs union, Mercosur. This collaboration provides LAC states with an opportunity to bring migration to the table and lean on European partners for money and resources to support and scale legal migration paths. To address labor shortages, Spain passed its own domestic immigration reform last year, which expanded the length of seasonal work program visas. Several other European countries, including Germany, Italy, and Portugal, face similar labor shortages. This creates an opportunity for LAC governments to work with EU allies and establish mutually-beneficial migration programs that allow Latin American workers to legally immigrate and work in the European Union.
Current Challenges to Progressive Policy
Despite the presence of these necessary factors for reform, many governments in the Western Hemisphere are backsliding on legal migration paths. Several countries, such as Ecuador and even Peru itself have imposed visa restrictions on Venezuelans, Haitians, and other nationalities. Costa Rica went one step further and made asylum harder to obtain. Chile deployed troops to its border with Peru to stem migration amid backlash against new arrivals. Canada and the United States, both popular destinations for migrants in the region, recently reached an agreement that will allow border officials to turn back asylum seekers heading north across their shared border.
Continuing these policies is a severe mistake. Experience clearly shows that legal migration restrictions only worsen irregular migration. As long as personal (based on migrants’ personal characteristics such as income and education level) and numerical migration (such as migration caps) restrictions exist, people will still try to immigrate in secret or apply to immigrate even when it is not possible for many years. When migrants face restrictions to legal paths of entry, many, including asylum seekers, have resorted to employing smugglers to evade the system, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and ill treatment. In turn, this leads to migrants often losing their lives in smuggling schemes, a tragedy that many experts claim is the direct result of restrictive border policies that only fuel the human smuggling trade.
What Is at Stake?
Latin America is in a unique position to expand pre-existing and successful legal migration programs, from asylum, to temporary status, to seasonal work visas. Currently, the region has just enough of the necessary factors of political consensus and regional and international financial help to establish sustainable migration programs. Irregular migration is an extremely difficult challenge, but Latin American governments can address it effectively and humanely—and they must. Not doing so would only increase irregular migration, lead to substantial migrant deaths, empower smugglers and organized crime groups, and set the LAC region back in dozens of related policy issues.
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A Path Forward on Migration in Latin America
May 29, 2023
Contrary to popular belief, a lot of migration from Latin American countries moves to other Latin America countries, not just the U.S. Indeed, Peru and Colombia have proven to be exemplar destination countries with important lessons to offer on handling immigration, writes YPFP's Alejandro Turino.
C
ontrary to mainstream beliefs in the United States, not all migration within the Western Hemisphere ends in North America. In fact, migration within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has more than doubled since 2010 and in certain instances outpaces immigration from the region to the United States. The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis, Central American gang violence, and economic hardships exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic all increased migration flows throughout the region. Much reporting is done on the percentage of these migrants heading to North America, but little is said about the millions granted asylum and other legal migration paths within South America itself. Over the last 10 years, countries like Peru and Colombia, albeit with policy limitations, have found effective and humane ways to address irregular migration. In fact, these Latin American countries can serve as a guiding example to find a path forward on migration within the continent and beyond.
Policy Avenues Forward Already Exist
The gold standard immigration response remains Colombia’s 10-year residence permit for Venezuelan migrants started by former President Iván Duque in February 2021. The program aims to provide legal status to nearly two million Venezuelans taking refuge in the country, giving them access to work, healthcare, financing opportunities, and education for up to 10 years. As with any large public policy initiative, there have been concerns about the Colombian government’s capacity to provide services at such a large scale. Overall, however, the program has been viewed positively and even received significant non-governmental funding. The World Bank found that immediate impacts of the program included a 40% increase in access to state services, a 64% increase in access to financial services, and a 10% increase in labor formalization. Peru, the second largest host of Venezuelan emigrants, offers a similar, but shorter, one-year, temporary residence permit with similar successes and challenges.
While regularization in both Peru and Colombia has given thousands of migrants legal access to education, employment, and healthcare, it still does not guarantee integration. Venezuelan migrants with legal status in both Colombia and Peru still face discrimination when trying to enter the formal labor market. They do not always understand the services available to them, and disinformation can cause further confusion in the already complicated processes of accessing services. In response to these limitations, Peru itself has even reversed course and begun restrictive migration policies such as the requirement of passports and criminal records at the border. Although these are difficult policy challenges, they can be addressed with coordination and joint efforts between state agencies, the private sector, and civil society. Nevertheless, the programs are still proof that pragmatic pathways already exist to address regional migration. The question that remains: What factors need to be in place to ensure the adoption and successes of similar migration programs?
Necessary Factor No. 1: Political Consensus
Historically, political instability throughout the LAC region has made it difficult for governments to work together on complicated issues, with irregular migration at the top of the list. However, recent elections have brought to power several like-minded leaders in key countries. The elections of Chile’s Gabriel Boric, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have ushered in what many political analysts are calling the New Pink Tide, a reference to the wave of left-wing governments that came to power in the region at the start of this century. Leftist governments also lead Mexico and Argentina, two other key players in the region. Although there are some disagreements, similar ideological thinking among these governments could make it easier for them to cooperate in expanding already-existing legal migration programs. The current wave of democratically-elected and like-minded leaders thus provides a unique opportunity to continue expanding legal migration pathways.
Necessary Factor No. 2: Money
Implementing legal mobility projects at-scale requires large amounts of resources and funds, which are scarce for many LAC governments. Luckily, there are regional and international institutions states can lean on for guidance and funding. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Migration Initiative helps LAC countries by providing financial and non-financial instruments (grants and research), leveraging investments (from member countries, the international community, and civil society), and scaling innovative solutions (such as using virtual learning to create a mass of public officials that can create effective interventions on the issue of migration). The initiative aims to contribute to migrants’ successful integration to their host communities.
Spain’s upcoming European Union presidency also offers states in the LAC region funding and partnership opportunities. Madrid will take over the rotating presidency in July and has already highlighted a desire for closer relations with LAC. To that end, the EU is finalizing trade deals with Mexico, Chile, and the South American customs union, Mercosur. This collaboration provides LAC states with an opportunity to bring migration to the table and lean on European partners for money and resources to support and scale legal migration paths. To address labor shortages, Spain passed its own domestic immigration reform last year, which expanded the length of seasonal work program visas. Several other European countries, including Germany, Italy, and Portugal, face similar labor shortages. This creates an opportunity for LAC governments to work with EU allies and establish mutually-beneficial migration programs that allow Latin American workers to legally immigrate and work in the European Union.
Current Challenges to Progressive Policy
Despite the presence of these necessary factors for reform, many governments in the Western Hemisphere are backsliding on legal migration paths. Several countries, such as Ecuador and even Peru itself have imposed visa restrictions on Venezuelans, Haitians, and other nationalities. Costa Rica went one step further and made asylum harder to obtain. Chile deployed troops to its border with Peru to stem migration amid backlash against new arrivals. Canada and the United States, both popular destinations for migrants in the region, recently reached an agreement that will allow border officials to turn back asylum seekers heading north across their shared border.
Continuing these policies is a severe mistake. Experience clearly shows that legal migration restrictions only worsen irregular migration. As long as personal (based on migrants’ personal characteristics such as income and education level) and numerical migration (such as migration caps) restrictions exist, people will still try to immigrate in secret or apply to immigrate even when it is not possible for many years. When migrants face restrictions to legal paths of entry, many, including asylum seekers, have resorted to employing smugglers to evade the system, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and ill treatment. In turn, this leads to migrants often losing their lives in smuggling schemes, a tragedy that many experts claim is the direct result of restrictive border policies that only fuel the human smuggling trade.
What Is at Stake?
Latin America is in a unique position to expand pre-existing and successful legal migration programs, from asylum, to temporary status, to seasonal work visas. Currently, the region has just enough of the necessary factors of political consensus and regional and international financial help to establish sustainable migration programs. Irregular migration is an extremely difficult challenge, but Latin American governments can address it effectively and humanely—and they must. Not doing so would only increase irregular migration, lead to substantial migrant deaths, empower smugglers and organized crime groups, and set the LAC region back in dozens of related policy issues.
