37th Edition of Inter-American Course on International Migration Commences in Mar del Plata, Argentina
Argentina - IOM started yesterday a new edition of the Inter- American Course on International Migration, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. This event is carried out every year and is addressed to government officials from the Latin-American region.
This year’s event gathers 28 representatives from 15 Latin American countries who work in government offices directly dealing with migration matters. It also counts on 23 experts in migration, coming from 7 countries, who will teach the various migration topics during the two-week course.
Additionally, the course will count on the participation of experts from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Institute of Human Rights Public Policy (IPPDH for its Spanish acronym) and the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN).
The opening ceremony was chaired by Ambassador Rubén Buira, Head of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship in Argentina and the IOM Regional Director for South America, Diego Beltrand.
Beltrand said that, over the years, the course has become an important academic referent and a space for the exchange of national experiences, which contributes to a broader understanding of the migration trends and issues currently faced by the countries in the region.
The course addresses topics such as the international protection of migrants, legal aspects of migration public management, regional processes of integration and current policies, and programs of international migration, among others.
Furthermore, this edition has included the topic of migration, environment and climate change.
”The content of the course has been developed based on a human rights approach for migrants as the center of a migratory policy,” Beltrand added.
In the framework of the Inter-American Course on International Migration, IOM has trained up to now more than 800 officials from government of Latin America and the Caribbean.
For further more information, please contactLujan De La Torre, IOM South America, Tel: +54 11 5219-2033/5219-2034/5219-2035, Email:ldelatorre@iom.int
Or Niurka Piñeiro, IOM Washington, Tel: +1 202 862 1826 ext. 225, Mobile: 1 202 684 0559 Email: npineiro@iom.int
Context
General migration trends in the Latin-American region
Argentina is the region’s main pole of attraction of South American migrants. Also, Venezuela has a significant amount of migrants from the region. Additionally, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay have consolidated as host countries after being countries of origin of migration for a long time, both in and outside the region. The main intraregional migrant flows towards these countries come from Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Emigration, instead, keeps on characterizing countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, where such emigration trend is higher than that of migrant arrival. However, due to social and economic advances, these countries have started to receive new migration flows.
Extraregional immigration includes flows coming from Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean with a predominance of Haiti, Dominican Republic, Senegal, China and Bangladesh citizens.
Simultaneously, the return of nationals of the region’s countries is a trend steadily manifested as consequence of the economic crisis and the restrictions of entry and residence in the main extraregional destinations as well as the economic and social improvement reported in the region.
Likewise, human trafficking and smuggling of migrants keep on affecting the region’s countries.
Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America, including Belize) is essentially one of migrant origin and transit. Some countries in Mesoamerica have experienced flows of migrants returning to their country of origin.
In addition, in recent years the countries of Mesoamerica have become one of the world’s principal corridors for migrants in transit.
The migratory flows towards Mesoamerican countries, such as Nicaragua–Costa Rica and Guatemala/El Salvador/Honduras–Belize, although having reduced their rate of growth in comparison to that of past decades, still continue to be significant. (More information is available at http://costarica.iom.int/en/migration_trends_in_the_region)