Government officials, academia, migration experts and civil society
groups are gathering today in Buenos Aires to discuss recent
migrant flows from Africa arriving in Argentina.

Current migration policy and regulations in Argentina facilitate
migrants' access to legal residence and provide protection for
social and human rights, including access to health care and
education.

In the past seven years Argentina has regularized some 400,000
migrants, the vast majority from other South American
countries.

"The regularization policy is carried out as part of decisions
taken by MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market), which considers
enhanced mobility as a positive component for increased regional
integration. However, despite positive policies regarding migrants,
discrimination and exclusion still require further efforts,"
explains Juan Artola, IOM Regional Representative in Argentina.

Currently, Argentina hosts large migrant populations from
Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, who have a significant presence in the
labour market. Bolivian migrants are responsible for a large part
of the production of fresh vegetables in Buenos Aires and other
urban areas in the country, making those products cheaper and more
accessible. Bolivians are also present in the textile sector.
Paraguayans tend to concentrate in the construction sector, but are
also important in professional and other services, including
domestic work.

And although smaller in numbers, an increased presence of
migrants coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal,
Somalia and Zimbabwe, has become more visible in Argentina and
neigbouring countries in the past few years. They are mainly young
adults but also include women and children; most are irregular
migrants working in the informal labour market.

Many of the African migrants hail from urban areas and have
completed secondary, and in many cases, tertiary education. They
integrate into the informal labour market, working in the
production of handicrafts, restaurants, petty trade and other
services. They are also present in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. Many of them arrive in
Brazil by boat and from there move on to other South American
countries, although some manage to travel by sea directly to
Argentina, Uruguay or Chile. Many of them expect to save money in
order to bring their families, but others plan to find ways to
travel to North America or to Europe.

Dr. Mbuyi Kabunda, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
an expert on African affairs and African migration to Europe,
professor at the Madrid Autonomous University, and author on
African international relations, provided the general framework of
African migration.

The previous workshops focused on the situation of Paraguayan
and Bolivian migrants in Argentina, including integration concerns,
such as their vulnerability and social exclusion, and provided a
space for participants to share the most recent data on these
migrant communities.

Input from all three workshops, organized this month by IOM
Buenos Aires as part of IOM’s 60th anniversary, will provide
input for strengthening IOM's ongoing and future activities related
to migration flows in the region, in close coordination with
relevant government authorities and other partners.

For more information, please contact:

Mariana Bocca

IOM Buenos Aires

Tel: 54 1 14.815.51.94

E-mail: "mailto:mbocca@iom.int">mbocca@iom.int