Abstract
This chapter considers that today’s flows of mixed migration in the Americas, particularly in North and Central America, demand a shift from the criminalization and securitization of migration to a more compassionate approach. This chapter also proposes that the present migration flows should be addressed within existing regional forums, such as the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM) that includes strong bridges with civil society organizations (CSOs). Furthermore, the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICMW) needs to be at the center stage of any regional dialogue that can evolve into a compassionate regional regime for migration.
Migration per se is not and should not be seen as a problem that requires a solution; it is an inevitable part of the human condition.
Amnesty International (October 31, 2005) Written Submission to the CMW Day of General Discussion on Protecting the Rights of all Migrant Workers as a Tool to Enhance Development.
The reality of migration…calls for international cooperation and a spirit of profound solidarity and compassion. Cooperation at different levels is critical, including the broad adoption of policies and rules aimed at protecting and promoting the human person.
His Holiness Pope Francis (August 15, 2014) Message of his Holiness Pope Francis for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
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Notes
- 1.
For “mixed migration” I am using the IOM definition which states that “[T]he principal characteristics of mixed migration flows include the irregular nature of and the multiplicity of factors driving such movements, and the differentiated needs and profiles of the persons involved. Mixed flows have been defined as ‘complex population movements including refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and other migrants’. Unaccompanied minors, environmental migrants, smuggled persons, victims of trafficking and stranded migrants, among others, may also form part of a mixed flow” (IOM’s Ninety-Sixth Session, Discussion Note: International Dialogue on Migration).
- 2.
By “structural migration” I refer to the fact that the major pull-and-push factors for international migration, particularly related to labor, are structurally built through: (1) Historical patterns of recruitment by employers in highly industrialized states or by governments acting on their behalf through guest labor programs as were the cases of the U.S.-Mexico Bracero Program (1942–1964) discussed in Chapter 6 or the Federal Republic of Germany’s Gastarbeiterprogramm or guest worker program in the 1960s and 1970s and (2) bilateral, regional, and international political economy agreements and regimes that generate the demand and supply for skilled and unskilled labor as well as the demand for land and resources to ensure the reproduction of capital within, and beyond advanced capitalist states (Castles et al. 2009; Massey 2009; Piore 1980; Sassen 2014).
- 3.
Alexander Betts describes “survival migrants” as those migrants who flee because of serious rights deprivations but nevertheless fall outside common legal understandings of a refugee. For the full study on “survival migration” see: Betts, Alexander 2013 Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement. Cornell University Press.
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Arrocha, W.F. (2017). The Need for a Compassionate Migration Regime for North and Central America: Restoring and Extending Universal Human Rights to Migrant Workers, Their Families, and “Survival Migrants”. In: Bender, S., Arrocha, W. (eds) Compassionate Migration and Regional Policy in the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55074-3_8
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