The Policy and Politics of Forced Migration in the Americas

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Latin America is experiencing unprecedented rates of forced migration. Across the region, individuals and families are leaving behind political crises and organized crime violence for potential safety elsewhere. Migrants fleeing Central America and Mexico often head for the United States; Venezuelan refugees, meanwhile, generally remain within Latin America; and Colombian displaced persons often relocate within that country. Some governments use existing visa categories to ensure arrivals have legal status, while others have implemented new asylum programs, and yet others restrict the entry of migrants. The proposed panel brings together experts from the policy world and academia to explore the causes of forced migration in the region, as well as regional governments’ policy responses to the record influx of migrants. The comparative scope of the papers is broad, encompassing Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, and Mexico as sending countries, and the countries of both North and South America as receptors. In addition to offering new theoretical and empirical tools for understanding the politics of migration, the panel leverages cross-national variation—in reasons for flight and government responses—to understand the deeper causes of the region’s recent uptick in forced migration and the broad range of policy responses to this unprecedented flight.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 52: Migration and Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• The Construction of Immigration Systems in Latin America? - Andew Dan Selee, Migration Policy Institute

• Transnational Uprootings: Criminal Governance and Displacement in Michoacán - Andreas E. Feldmann, University of Illinois at Chicago; Xóchitl Bada, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Confinement in Motion - Martha Balaguera, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Shifts in Displacement Dynamics in the Americas - Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, Washington Office on Latin America

Chair

• Jerome F Marston Marston Brown University

Discussants

• Seungbin Park University of Alabama

• Megan Roosevelt Montana State University, Bozeman