Political and Legal Responses to Human Mobility in South America in the Context of the Covid-19 Crisis. More Fuel for the Fire?

Abstract

During the XXI century, South America has been the epicenter of vibrant discussions on human mobility. A new vocabulary emerged with legal principles such as the non-criminalization of irregular migration or the right to migrate as a fundamental right taking central stage. The combination of the arrival of COVID-19 together with the important emigration of Venezuelans in the region, as well as economic and political crisis are putting into question some of these advances and present a complex scenario of migration governance in the region for the years to come.

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

“…Moreover, South American countries have not turned to the SACM as a force to facilitate a unified regional response to crises, neither the Venezuelan displacement nor the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, countries have reacted mostly with unilateral restrictive responses to migration flows, such as by increasing securitization-based policies (Acosta and Brumat, 2020). The results of this multilevel analysis may serve other RCPs since we find an opportunity to harmonize policies during the migration governance steps of sensemaking and migration management.…”

“…Second, major changes in migration flows from Venezuela since 2015 are testing the resilience of more pro-migrant rights national legislation (see Brumat, 2021). As of early 2020, Acosta and Brumat (2020) report that of 5.2 million Venezuelan nationals who live abroad reside throughout the region, most numerous in Colombia, then followed by Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina. As the main destination of Venezuelan immigrants, these flows are testing Colombia's 2011 law-which it is failing.…”

A Transitory Settlement on the Way back to Venezuela: A Tale of Vulnerability, Exception, and Migrant Resistance in times of Covid-19

“…The return process seemed to be owed to economic reasoning. Evictions had become commonplace since the start of the first general lockdowns in different reception countries by early and mid-March 2020 (Acosta, Brumat, 2020). This affected many vulnerable sectors of local societies, where the prevalence of labour informality makes it hard to access governmental safety nets.…”

Untitled

“…De forma similar, Dempster et al (2020) concluyen que, a escala global, la pandemia ha dificultado el acceso de solicitantes de asilo y refugiados al mercado laboral, servicios públicos y ayuda 6. Las condiciones para la supervivencia durante la pandemia se volvieron tan desfavorables que cabe mencionar quizás uno de los casos más extremos: el retorno de 50.000 de refugiados venezolanos, según las estimaciones de ACNUR, a su país durante el primer año de crisis sanitaria (Acosta y Brumat, 2020).…”

“…Perú ha sido uno de los países más afectados por la COVID-19, a pesar de ser uno de los primeros de la región en imponer medidas de aislamiento social obligatorio y cierre de fronteras. Asimismo, la pandemia ha contribuido a que haya implementado políticas migratorias cada vez más restrictivas, como lo demuestra la militarización de las fronteras para frenar los flujos migratorios y la suspensión de los sistemas de refugio, así como la exclusión de la población migrante y refugiada de las políticas de asistencia socioeconómica impulsadas por el Estado (Acosta y Brumat, 2020;Freier y Vera Espinoza, 2021;Vera Espinoza et al, 2021). En este contexto, la población migrante y refugiada venezolana se ha visto particularmente afectada por la pérdida de empleos y reducción de ingresos, el limitado acceso a servicios de salud, el riesgo de ser víctimas de desalojos y el aumento de episodios de xenofobia y discriminación.…”