2023-10-20 06:15:00
From the once impenetrable Darien jungle to the US-Mexico border, passing through inner-US cities like New York and Chicago – all under pressure from the growing number of migrants – the movement of people in the Americas seems be about to get out of control.
To avoid chaos, and as part of a multi-pronged approach to managing and ordering migration, it is time to act decisively to stabilize migrant host communities across the Americas, of which there are many more in the United States than ever before. what is usually thought.
Currently, almost 20% of the world’s displaced population comes from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that only represents 8% of the world’s population. A fundamental aspect is that the vast majority of displaced people do not reach the United States, largely due to the notable, although undervalued, success of Latin America and the Caribbean in managing historic levels of displacement.
Take the largest group on the American continent: the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who have been forced to flee since 2015. More than 84% currently live elsewhere in the region, including almost three million in neighboring Colombia, a country of 50 million inhabitants. The United States, by comparison, only hosts 6% of the Venezuelan diaspora. The same occurs with other important emigrant populations. Costa Rica, a country of five million inhabitants that hosts more than 300,000 Nicaraguans, as well as Mexico, are among the world leaders in receiving asylum applications.
One of the keys to the region’s success has been the effort to quickly integrate migrant populations. The provision of basic social services and, in the most successful cases, the formal possibility of working have considerably shortened the time it takes for new populations to go from being tax burdens to being tax taxpayers. Integration efforts led by municipalities in places like Bogotá and Barranquilla (Colombia) have allowed both cities to manage 10% population growth driven by immigrants and offer valuable lessons for other cities in the Americas.
The 10-year temporary protection that Colombia offers to Venezuelans is the best example of facilitating legislation at the national level, but it is not the only one. The most recent example is Panama, a country traditionally reluctant to take in irregular immigrants, but which has begun to apply its own temporary protection regime.
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But the region’s absorption capacity is reaching a tipping point following the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic; the disruptions to the energy and food markets caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine; capital flight and the increasing financial burden of debt as US interest rates rise; among other geopolitical setbacks. Tense fiscal conditions are making it difficult to reactivate economies and support communities that host significant migrant populations.
A bold stabilization plan for host communities is needed to open fiscal space for countries hosting large numbers of immigrants, reincentivize their reception policies and reverse this trend. This is not a task for direct foreign aid paid for by American taxpayers. The billions needed must be mobilized by development financial institutions working in collaboration with governments, the private sector and the philanthropic community. Over time, a stabilization plan at the level of host communities will require the reform and recapitalization of key institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), but in the meantime, immediate action can be taken.
Through a multi-donor guarantee fund, for example the United States along with other countries such as Spain, Canada, and perhaps even regional economic leaders such as Mexico and Brazil, concessional or quasi-concessional financing could be provided to developing countries. middle income that host important migrant populations, conditional on investment in regularization and integration efforts. The fund could operate similarly to the International Education Financing Facility, which leverages a combination of tens of millions of paid-up capital and grants, or the Asia-Pacific Innovative Climate Finance Facility, which uses financial guarantees to reduce the risk of sovereign loans, to unlock billions of concessional financing for lower-middle-income countries.
The IDB and the World Bank recently promised greater collaboration. As the main shareholder of both, the United States must insist that these banks, in accordance with the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection of June 2022, work to improve their ambition and coordination when supporting migrant integration and inclusion efforts. . Both entities should focus on mobilizing private capital towards investment in cities that host important migrant communities, where they could catalyze growth that is essential to stabilize both the displaced and the populations that wish to emigrate.
In an effort to promote greater financing for major global challenges, the IDB and the African Development Bank have jointly proposed that the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDR) be rechanneled through multilateral development banks, in order to take advantage of the banks’ leverage capacity. In the Americas, a stabilization plan for host communities – possibly tailored for communities hosting those displaced by the climate crisis – should be a primary beneficiary of this creative development financing.
A strategy for host communities is just one component of the necessary multi-pronged approach to mitigating and managing migration. One with a proven track record of success across the continent and that must be reinforced at scale before it is too late.
Dan Restrepo He served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
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