Migration governance in South America: regional approaches versus national laws

Abstract

Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs) have become the standard for multilateral migration policy discussion over the last two decades. RCPs are geographically bounded, non-binding meetings organized voluntarily by states and promoted by international organizations. Our chapter contributes to accumulating knowledge regarding the migration governance role of RCPs by Finn, Doña Reveco, and Feddersen (2019) doi.org/10.4337/9781788119948.00008 investigating the South American Conference on Migration (CSM). We conduct a thematic analysis of CSM documents from its first annual meeting in 2000 until 2017 to find the most salient themes. We then examine migration-related legislation to uncover to what extent national laws incorporate regional discussion and accords. We find that although multilateral cooperation has created a set of common standards and practices, their domestic incorporation remains uneven.This chapter sheds light on the synergy between regional-level priorities and national-level laws, revealing a limitation of regional migration governance.

Peaks and pitfalls of multilevel policy coordination: The South American Conference on Migration

“…Beyond supporting the right to reside through the Mercosur Residence Agreement, human rights have formed a pillar in SACM discussion since its start, alongside migration policy coordination, or a need for the "harmonization of migration policies in the region" (Harns, 2013;Mármora, 2016: 37;Finn, Doña-Reveco, and Feddersen, 2019; see Table 2). Despite Mármora's (2010) description of the South American model of migratory governability as a human development approach to migration that puts migrant rights at the center of migration policy, legislation varies throughout the region.…”

“…The attempt was overturned, showing a step away from restrictive policy. Government ideology is not determinative of output: Evo Morales' leftwing government in Bolivia made Venezuelan immigrants 'invisible' by not processing their refugee applications (OAS, 2020), even though the same government had enshrined rights-based migration policy in 2013 (Finn, Doña-Reveco, and Feddersen, 2019;Freier and Parent, 2019).…”

The persistence of the security paradigm in the regulation of entry requirements in the Chilean immigration law

“…Inicialmente, los investigadores explicaron el cambio de seguridad hacia derechos en el hecho de que la mayoría de los países sudamericanos eran emisores de inmigrantes y estaban gobernados por presidentes que profesaban una ideología de izquierda (Cantor et al 2015, Acosta y Freier 2015b. A su vez, varios de estos países sudamericanos participaban activamente en iniciativas de integración regional, como MERCOSUR (Margheritis 2013) y la Conferencia Sudamericana de Migraciones (Finn et al 2019). En estos espacios se generaban consensos a favor de los inmigrantes, los que luego se irradiaban en sus políticas internas, con mayor o menor penetración (Finn et al 2019).…”

“…A su vez, varios de estos países sudamericanos participaban activamente en iniciativas de integración regional, como MERCOSUR (Margheritis 2013) y la Conferencia Sudamericana de Migraciones (Finn et al 2019). En estos espacios se generaban consensos a favor de los inmigrantes, los que luego se irradiaban en sus políticas internas, con mayor o menor penetración (Finn et al 2019).…”

Is there "Latin American" approach to migration governance?

“…Multilateral management of migration is also reflected in the principles and declarations agreed upon in regional and global forums. These attained only partial incorporation into national frameworks, though (Finn et al, 2019). In parallel, multilateral cooperation has taken place outside of existing channels (Acosta, Blouin and Freier, 2019), as is the case of the Lima Group at the peak of the Venezuelan exodus.…”