South America


A US-designed Migration Pact for the Americas?

This blog post has been initially published by Eurac and re-published here on MPC blog. Twenty countries in the Americas recently adopted a regional agreement on migration and protection that was proposed by the US government. What is this agreement about and why did Latin American governments endorse it? And, could it constitute a migration […]

State control + human rights: Venezuelan displacement to Colombia and lessons from South American migration governance

The emigration of 5.6 million Venezuelans since 2015 means that South America is undergoing the largest forced displacement in the region’s history. On March 1 2021, the Colombian government, the main receiving country of Venezuelan migrants, issued an Executive decree that made headlines across the world. Decree 216 of 2021 could potentially regularise around 2.5 […]

A Turning Tide? Venezuelan Displacement and Migration Governance in Peru

Initially, South American countries were very empathetic and welcoming towards Venezuelan forced displacement – a migration wave that started to sweep across the region in 2015 – employing immigration policies that allowed regular entry and temporary residence. In many respects, Peru stood as the regional leader in receiving those fleeing Venezuela as a result of […]

Venezuelans are the first nationality of asylum seekers worldwide, but South American countries do not recognise them as refugees. Why?

Both the UNHCR and IOM have labelled the current Venezuelan emigration as a ‘staggering exodus’. More than 4 million people have left the country since 2015. This happened as question marks are being raised about the willingness and capacity of South American countries (where more than 90 per cent of Venezuelan emigrants are residing) to […]

Migration and the ‘rise of the right’ in South America: Is there an increasing anti-immigration sentiment in the Southern Cone?

Recent decisions and actions of some governments of the ‘Southern Cone’ of South America have created major controversies and put the migration agenda in the spotlight. Chile decided not to sign the Global Compact for Migration (GCM)1 just a few hours before the Marrakesh Conference2 started. The new government of Brazil confirmed that the country […]