Migration Crisis in the Andes: A Case Study of Localization and Acompañamiento from Medellin, Colombia

Abstract

In this article, we explore the question: how do local nonprofits respond to migration crises? We focus on the migration context across Colombia and Venezuela, two countries situated in the Andean region of South America with histories of migratory patterns, and geographies where public goods and services by government are limited, leaving nonprofits often as primary service providers. We explore our research question through the case study of the nonprofit organization Fundación Huellas. The Fundación Huellas case study outlines a local, community-based nonprofit responding to a migration crisis in Medellín, Colombia. While micro-territorial in scope, we posit that the case helps to understand the role(s) of nonprofit organizations in migration crises and demonstrates an important dimension to localization in the provision of public goods and services in such contexts. We find that localization should be explored and understood in Latin America as including the dimension of “acompañamiento” (or accompaniment in English), which can manifest in daily nonprofit practice. We use our case study data to introduce and explain the dimension of “acompañamiento” in localization and migration crises and to call on the field and funders to better recognize and support this orientation in local nonprofit responses.