Argentina - IOM´s Director General, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, travels to Colombia to participate in the XIII South American Conference on Migration being held this week in the historic city of Cartagena de Indias.

Officials from the 12 countries that make up the South American Conference on Migration (SACM) are coming together this week to share information on migration trends in the region, as well as to discuss policies and best practices, carry out consultations and promote regional cooperation on migration issues.

Ambassador Swing stressed to participants: “This process plays a major role in the strengthening of the prevention and the protection of the human rights of migrants, especially those in vulnerable situations, as well as to promote South-South cooperation on migration issues.”

During the three-day event opening tomorrow, Ambassador Swing will join officials of the Government of Colombia, host and current President Pro Tempore of the Conference, as well as ambassadors and ministerial representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela, in addition to representatives from international and civil society organizations.

This year’s Conference will focus on four main areas: Follow-up to the implementation of the South American Human Development Plan for Migration; Migration and South American Integration; Strengthening Migration Management; and the international linkages of the SACM. 

Starting in the 1990s, the region began to shift from a traditional region of destination to an area of origin of migration. More recently the flows from South America to the developed countries diminished, but the majority of the South American countries still have large amounts of nationals abroad. 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.

Regarding immigration, the main migration patterns in South America relate increasingly with intra-regional migration, especially between neighboring countries. Argentina continues to be the main receiving country, with Chile and Brazil becoming new destination countries and Uruguay and Paraguay, as well other countries also having an increased presence of migrants. 

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

A special session of the Conference will be dedicated to the launch of the IOM World Migration Report 2013: Migrant Well-Being and Development”.  This 7^th edition of the IOM flagship publication stresses that although migration improves human development, many migrants still struggle to achieve satisfactory levels of well-being.

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 the first Conference, 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) and Santiago de Chile (2012).

The SACM is supported by IOM, as Technical Secretariat of the Conference.

For more information, please contact 

SACM Technical Secretariat
Email CSMsecretriíatecnica@iom.int

or

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

or

Magdalena Mactas
IOM Buenos Aires
Email: mmactas@iom.int