Peru/Buenos Aires  - IOM Director General William Lacy Swing arrived this week in the Peruvian capital Lima to participate in the XIV South American Conference on Migration (SACM).

At this year’s Conference, themed: “Immigration and Inclusion: A Challenge for South American Integration,” officials from the 12 countries that make up the SACM, as well as delegates from Mexico and Nicaragua, are sharing information on migration trends in the region, as well as discussing policies and best practices, carrying out consultations and promoting regional cooperation on migration issues.

During the opening ceremony, Ambassador Swing told delegates: “The SACM has played an important role in consolidating a rights-centered approach in this region, which has also made remarkable advances to ensure the free movement of people and the decriminalization of migration.  Linking migration and social inclusion is also a move in the rights-based direction, as well as the integration work underway in South America and South-South cooperation.”

In addition to social inclusion and migration, participants are also discussing the progress achieved thus far in the goals set forth in the South American Human Development Plan for Migration and the Cartagena Declaration, signed by participating countries at last year’s SACM, which focused on regularization as a means to strengthening the human rights of migrants and regional integration.

Other topics being discussed in Lima include smuggling of migrants, extra-continental migration, unaccompanied minors, border migration, and migration and climate change.

Migration patterns in South America include intra-regional migration, especially between neighboring countries.  Starting in the 1990s, the region has increasingly become a destination for migrants. Argentina continues to be the main receiving country, with Chile and Brazil becoming new destination countries in the past few years.

Other key migration trends are the return of nationals to their countries of origin, as well as the increased return from Europe of South American nationals with dual nationality.   A flow of extra-regional migrants arriving in South America from Africa and Asia, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean (mainly from Haiti and Dominican Republic) is another emerging pattern.

It is estimated that at least some 6.6 million people born in South America are living outside their country of birth, mainly in the United States (1.3 million) and Spain (2.1 million). The main countries of origin are Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. 

Argentina and Venezuela, with 1.8 and 1 million migrants in 2010, respectively, remain the two top destination countries, while Brazil rose to third place with 600,000.

The SACM, which met for the first time in Lima in 1999, is the principal inter-governmental forum for political dialogue on international migration in South America.  Since then, annual meetings have been held in Buenos Aires (2000); Santiago de Chile (2001); Quito (2002); Montevideo (2003); La Paz (2004); Asunción (2006); Caracas (2007); Montevideo (2008), Quito (2009), Cochabamba (2010), Brasilia (2011), Santiago de Chile (2012) and Cartagena de Indias (2013). 

The SACM is organized with support provided by IOM, which is in charge of its Technical Secretariat and provides administrative support and technical cooperation aimed at facilitating intergovernmental debates on migration issues of common concern to countries in the region.

For more information, please contact

SACM Technical Secretariat
Email: csmsecretariatecnica@iom.int

or

IOM Buenos Aires

Jorge Gurrieri
Email: jgurrieri@iom.int
Tel: +54 11 5219 2033/4/5 

or

Magdalena Mactas
Email: mmactas@iom.int.