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Regional Seminar "The Contribution of International Migration to Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean"

Population and development
14 June 2023|Event

The objective of this seminar is to share the results of the United Nations Development Account (12th Tranche) project "Harnessing the contribution of international migration to sustainable development in Latin American and Caribbean countries", coordinated by CELADE - Population Division of the ECLAC, and to reflect on the analysis dimensions of the studies, as well as on their public policy implications.

Human mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean has reached a great and complex dynamism in the last decade. In just a few years, several countries have gone from being senders to net receivers of migrants, with unprecedented proportions of migrant persons over the total population. The majority of immigrants comes from other Latin American and Caribbean countries, which gives current migration an increasingly intraregional character. Migratory flows, whether to the United States of America or to the countries of the region, did not stop with the Covid-19 pandemic, as many migrants continued to move towards their destinations, despite restrictions.

Within the framework of this project, studies were carried out on the cases of Costa Rica, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru, the results of which were shared and discussed in national workshops, providing updated evidence on the contributions of migrants. The studies combine quantitative and qualitative approaches and analyses to identify and measure the contributions that migrants make to the countries of origin and destination, in three dimensions of great interest: economic, including contributions to the labor market; demographic, including the contribution to population growth as migrants are mainly of reproductive age; and finally, the cultural dimension, with their socio-cultural transformations and enrichment of the host communities.

The objectives of the seminar are to:
• Share the results of the United Nations Development Account project on the contributions of migration to sustainable development.
• Facilitate the exchange of experiences and lessons learned among the various actors and key stakeholders in the countries of the region.
• Reflect on the contributions of migration to development, in order to inform decision making in both the public and private sectors.
• Provide arguments and content to support an affirmative narrative of migration processes and the protection of the rights of all migrants.

  • Day 1: June 14

9:00 to 9:30  - Welcome
Moderator: Pamela Villalobos, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Simone Cecchini, Director, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- María José Torres Macho, Resident Coordinator, United Nations (to be confirmed)
- Marcelo Pisani, IOM Regional Director for South America
- Francesco Carella, Regional specialist in labor migration and mobility, ILO Regional Office, Peru

9:30 to 10:30  - Panel N°1: The contributions of migrants to sustainable development
Moderator: Pamela Villalobos, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Zulma Sosa, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC,Video presentation summary and results of the "Leveraging Contributions to Sustainable Development" Project
- Jorge Martinez, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC, Conceptual framework on the contributions of migration and its link to sustainable development
- Verónica Cano, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC, Comparative evidence on the contributions of migration to sustainable development

11:00 to 12:30 - Panel N°2: Good practices, challenges, and proposals for the full contribution of migrants in destination countries
Moderator: Jorge Dehays Rocha, Consultant CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Ezequiel Texidó, IOM Regional Office for South America
- Patricia Vargas, University of Guadalajara México
- Waleska Ureta, Jesuit Migrant Service, Chile
- Abelardo Morales, Nacional University of Costa Rica
- Marcela Cerrutti, Researcher, Center for Population Studies (CENEP), Argentina

12:30 to 13:30 - Panel N°3: Public policies to harness the economic, demographic and cultural contributions of migrants
Moderator: Richard Velázquez, Head of Mission IOM, Chile
- Marlen Luna Alfaro, Vice Minister of the Interior, Ministry of Interior and Police of Costa Rica 
- Juan Andrés Cáceres Arzamendia, Vice-Minister of Administration and Technical Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Paraguay. 
- Armando García, National Superintendent of Migration, Peru. 
- Crio Mayor (R) Eduardo Mata Castro, Director General, National Directorate of Migration, Uruguay

15:00 to 16:00 - Panel N°4: Migration in the Caribbean: contributions, good practices and challenges
Moderator: Pamela Villalobos, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Francis Jones, ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, Context of International Migration in the Caribbean
- Jeremy Harris, Migration Unit, IDB
- Jenese Edmondson, Demographer, Population and Health Unit, Planning Institute of Jamaica, Jamaica
- Merone Schwarz Coulange, Specialist in Migration Issues, El Colegio de México

16:30 to 18:00 - Panel N°5: Progress and challenges in the availability of data sources for analyzing the contribution of migration: censuses, surveys, administrative records and new sources
Moderator: Zulma Sosa, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Felipe Muñoz, Head of Migration Unit, IDB
- Adriana Oropeza, Director of Technical Coordination, INEGI, Mexico
- Peter Abad, Technical Director, INEI, Peru
- Miguel Ojeda, Head of Demography Sub-Department, INE, Chile
- Sebastián Ruiz, Director of Census and Demography, DANE, Colombia

  • Day 2: June 15

9:30 to 10:30  - Panel N°6: Instruments and initiatives for the social and labor inclusion of migrants
Moderator: Regional specialist in labor migration and mobility, ILO Regional Office, Peru
- Patricia Roa, Programming Officer, ILO Chile
- Wilfredo Lozano, Executive Director, National Institute of Migration, Dominican Republic
- Marcela Torres, National President AFUNPRO, Judicial Assistance Corporation, Ministry of Justice, Chile
- Fausto Iñiguez, Undersecretary of Migration, Ecuador

10:30 to 11:30 - Panel N°7: Private sector and migrant workers: multiple contributions, mutual benefits
Moderator: José Estay, IOM Chile 
- Catalina Martínez, Director of the ANDI Foundation, Colombia
- Mario Velásquez, Labor Market and Migration Specialist, Chile
- Luis Oviedo, Researcher, National University of Costa Rica
- Tania Vásquez, Senior Researcher, Institute of Peruvian Studies, Lima, Peru

12:00 to 13:30 - Panel N°8: The contributions of migrants in local contexts: good practices, challenges and recommendations
Moderator: Juan Pablo Ramaciotti, Director of the Center for Migration Policy, Chile
- Ana María de la Parra, Consultant SIA development
- Jeanette Alonzo Contreras, Metropolitan Councilwoman, Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, Peru
- Oscar Peñuela, Head of the Inclusion and Productive Development Office, Barranquilla Opportunities Center, Colombia
- Juan Pablo Gutiérrez, Director of Territory and Inclusion, National Migration Service, Chile

15:00 to 16:30 - Panel N°9: Narrativas sobre la migración internacional que promuevan una perspectiva de derechos y desarrollo: experiencias, desafíos y recomendaciones
Moderator: María Verónica Cano, CELADE-Population Division of ECLAC
- Rebeca Cenalmor-Rejas, UNHCR Chile Representative
- Carolina Stefoni, Researcher, University of Tarapacá
- Mariana Otero, Winner of the South American Award for Journalism on Migration IOM, Argentina
- Laura Perozo, Civil Society Representative, Mechanism to the Regional Migration Network
- Marta Luzes, Migration Unit, IDB

17:00 to 17:30 - Final thoughts
- Simone Cecchini, Director, CELADE – Population Division of ECLAC

Practical information

This event will be streaming in the following link: https://live.cepal.org/migracion/english.html

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