Human Displacement from a Global South Perspective: Migration Dynamics in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East

177 Pages·2021·2.561 MB·English

by  Celeste Cedillo González, Julieta Espín Ocampo

Human Displacement
from a Global South
Perspective
Migration Dynamics in
Latin America, Africa
and the Middle East
Edited by
Celeste Cedillo González
Julieta Espín Ocampo
Human Displacement from a Global South
Perspective
·
Celeste Cedillo González
Julieta Espín Ocampo
Editors
Human Displacement
from a Global South
Perspective
Migration Dynamics in Latin America, Africa
and the Middle East
Editors
Celeste Cedillo González Julieta Espín Ocampo
Universidad de las Americas Puebla School of Social Sciences and
Cholula, Puebla, Mexico Communication
Universidad Europea
Madrid, Spain
ISBN 978-3-030-64818-3 ISBN 978-3-030-64819-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64819-0
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Introduction
Mobility has been a constant phenomenon throughout human history.
Successivegeographicaldisplacementshavebeendrivenbydifferentmoti-
vations, from seeking a better quality of life, to saving one’s life from
different threats. Currently, migration patterns can be classified into
internal (i.e., rural to urban migration) and international migration, and
voluntary and forced migration, such as refugees, internally displaced
persons, and asylum seekers.
Through history, major migrations included emigration from Europe
andAsiatocoloniesabroad,forcedmigrationofAfricanstotheAmericas
and immigration waves to the United States and other American coun-
tries. But in the last decades mobility flows have significantly changed
due to increasing migration from South to North. Social and economic
improvements in United States, Europe, and other developed societies
have turn them into immigration-receiving countries.
According to UN, the number of international migrants has increased
from 2.8% of the global population in the year 2000, to 3.5% in 2019,
reaching272millionindividuals.Thephenomenonhasbecomeaperma-
nentconcernforsending,transit,andhostingStates,sothatithasbecome
a determining factor in the management of global geopolitics. Of course,
migrant-sending countries are mainly the countries of the South, that is,
countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
ManyLatinAmericancountriesbecameimportantdestinationsforthe
European population for centuries. Mobility began during the colonial
v
vi INTRODUCTION
period, but continued after the processes of independence, especially in
the late nineteenth century and lasted until the Second World War. But
America was also the last destination for African slaves converted into
goodsforlandworkanddomesticservice,duetotheprecarioussituation
caused by oligarchic policies prevailing after the independence of these
countries.
TheeconomicrecoveryofEuropeandtheUnitedStates,aswellasthe
end of the Cold War, changed traditional migration flows. The tendency
for the consolidation of South–North migrations of the last fifty years
at the global level, deepened the migratory transition of Latin America,
from a migrant-host region to a migrant-sending one. According to the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
foreveryimmigrantarrivingonthecontinenttherearefourLatinAmeri-
cansthathaveemigrated.Highdegreesofpoverty,inequality,andunem-
ployment have made Latin America an expelling region. Currently, 53%
of Latin Americans would be willing to migrate if they had the possi-
bility.Butintheirdestinationcountries,manyimmigrantsarestigmatized
and excluded culturally and economically. There is sometimes confusion
between and integration, they suffer from discrimination in the labor
market and their vulnerability makes them more susceptible to human
rights violations.
Migration flows have also increased significantly in the African conti-
nent and the Middle East. However, migration policies of both expelling
countries and the transit and migrant-receiving countries have also not
respondedsatisfactorilyintheorganizationofsafeandorderlymigrations.
CountriesaroundtheMediterraneanhavebecomethemigratorydestina-
tion for many African and Asian people that flee their countries due to
lack of opportunities and access to basic services, widespread violence,
extreme inequality, or even the effects of climate change. Unfortunately,
manyofthemhavelosttheirliveswhenalongthewayduetothedifficult
geographicalandclimaticconditionsofthejourney,theprecariouscondi-
tions of their mobility, but also because of the mafias and crime that take
advantage of their vulnerability. Those who are able to settle in a Euro-
pean country may suffer from limitations and problems similar to Latin
American migrants in the United States or elsewhere.
Although traditional push and pull factors remain, new migration
patternsarise.Therefore,whereastraditionallong-distancemigrationused
to involve males looking for employment, that traveled by themselves
rather than risk-taking their families, nowadays, women represent 48% of
INTRODUCTION vii
the total international migrants. In addition, traditional transit/expelling
countries like Turkey, Mexico, and Morocco have become countries of
destination, among other factors, because of the tightening of migra-
tion policies in host countries. There are also new concepts as environ-
mental refugees,that is, peoplewho have been pushedfor environmental
reasons like droughts, floods, water shortages, earthquakes, and other
natural disasters. Even the increasing number of environmental refugees
because of climate change, they are not given the same rights under the
1951 Refugee Convention, based on social and political considerations
prompted by the Cold War.
In order to shed light on the migration phenomenon, the Mohamed
V University in Rabat, the Alter Forum International organization, with
invaluable supportfrom the Moroccan government, and the Latin Amer-
icancentersCaplatam(Colombia)andNeJMarocandObservatoryofthe
Muslim World (Mexico) sponsored the international forum Migrations:
Causes and Effects in Laayoune, in July 2019. This book is the result
of several researches presented at that international forum, analyzing
different migration cases around the world from a broad perspective of
global migration and focusing on a more inclusive and just governance
agenda of this issue within the framework of South–South cooperation.
In spite of numerous international laws protecting migrants, including
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that everyone has
the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country, migration has not been enough analyzed from the vision and
perspective of the countries of origin.
Considering the premise that world migration is a challenge for the
international community that does not have an immediate or easy solu-
tion, scholars from three continents analyze different manifestations of
mass exoduses, their causes, and consequences. Experts in the fields of
Sociology, Law, International Relations, and other social sciences offer a
new sight and narrative of processes that have been described until now
mostly from Western perspectives. They seek to open a debate about the
challenges and opportunities that migration offers to both sending and
host countries in economic, political, social, and cultural terms.
Most of the chapters coincide in highlighting the link between migra-
tion trends, social inequalities, and severe disruptions in local life, such as
the irruption of violence, economic crisis or environmental degradation.
We must understand the role of failed development programs and lack of
opportunities as drivers of migrations.
viii INTRODUCTION
To address the cases studied here, the chapters are grouped into three
different parts. The first two divide case studies from a geographical
perspective. The first focuses on the Americas, from South America to
the United States, while the latter does the same around the Mediter-
ranean (Africa, Europe, and the Middle East). The last part addresses
two recent migration phenomena that are global in nature and attract
growing interest among scholars: the feminization of migration and the
relationship between migration and environment.
In the first chapter, regarding the American continent, Dr. Mohamed
Badine El Yattioui presents the “secutirization” of immigration policy
in Trump’s Administration, the hardening of the immigration policies,
including the construction of the wall between Mexico and the United
States, and the role that Mexican diplomacy must play in order to find a
political solution to a common challenge
Dr. Claudia Barona and Natalia Tejero in the chapter titled “Cen-
tral American Caravan: New Models of Migration” analyze how violence
in Mexican territory and other factors have fostered the emergence of
Central American migrant caravans in the country and how the theory of
securitization intertwines with the new model of migration.
Dr. Ivonne Valencia describes the migration transition in Peru, that is,
thehistoricalchangeinmigrationpatterns,focusingonmodernPeruvian
migrants called the transmigrants of the twenty-first century. The objec-
tive of this study is to analyze the magnitude of foreign immigration and
the Peruvian emigration.
Likewise,ArabandSub-SaharanmigrationwithintheMiddleEastand
to Europe is addressed from several perspectives. Ph.D. student Yassine
ElYattiouiexplainshowtheintegrationof25millionMuslimsinEurope
isauniquesocialphenomenonduetothesecularanddemocraticcontext
in building the identity of European Muslim minorities.
In the fifth chapter Ph.D. student Nicolas Klingeslchmitt provides a
general overview on the global challenges linked with undocumented
migrations from the Sub-Saharan region in general and West Africa in
particular, to Europe, covering political, humanitarian, social, economic,
andlegalaspects,followinganinternationalmigrationsystemstheoretical
approach and including Ivory Coast as a case study.
Dr.JulietaEspíninherchaptertitled“PalestinianRefugees.OldProb-
lems,NewChallenges”reviewscurrentchallengestoPalestinianrefugees,
especially in Syria, Gaza Strip and the growing founding crisis faced by
INTRODUCTION ix
UNRWA, the UN agency that supports more than 5 million Palestinian
refugees in the Middle East.
Dr. Ana Silva presents the seventh chapter titled “Women: Facing the
Challenge of Migration” based on a gender perspective try to offer a
commontheoreticalframeworkforfemalemigration,withthepurposeof,
subsequently, analyzing it with a focus on specific geographical contexts.
Finally, the chapter of Dr. Celeste Cedillo analyzes the essential data
on migration and environment degradation at a global level, identifying
its relations with the impact of the broader phenomena of inequality in
vulnerable regions such as Latin America. In this work she reflects upon
some of the main challenges in the construction of legal international
instruments that allow for orderly migration flows respectful of human
rights and proposes to rethink the models of political coordination and
governance at a multilevel scale interlinked with sustainable development
at a local level.
Wehopethatthisvolumecontributesforadeeperunderstandingofthe
causes and consequences of migration from a south to south perspective.
Celeste Cedillo González
Julieta Espín Ocampo
Prologue
The desert encompasses silences, it embraces wholeness and nothingness.
Memory is caught between its dunes and its winds. No matter what they
say, in the desert there is more than sand.
In the western side of Sahara, a group of specialists in what academics
call the Global South met in the dunes of Laayoune and Smara. We have
startedapaththathasbeendrawnamongthreecontinentsfortwoyears.
All of us are the result of migration and colonization in its different
dimensions.WeunderstandtheNorthandsomeofuswereborninit,but
we still recognize our diverse roots. This is how the Institute of Saharan
Studies Al-Andalus was born in Morocco.
Among the main objectives of this institute are to study, analyze, and
disseminate current social issues, leaving out academic activism. This has
unfortunately become a common trend in certain academic sectors. The
most visible example of this academic activism is found in the Saharawi
conflict, one of the most difficult political struggles to solve, and yet
one of the least known. Discussions about it have become a constant
call to revolution in the midst of nothingness, and a claim for a troop of
supporters that simplify the world by dividing it between good and evil.
Thispoliticalandacademicstagnationhascausedalackofobjectivesolu-
tions that can change the status quo. The Saharawi conflict is dragged
since colonial times, suffered by a population that still has no right to
refugee status. Some of them have become militias in Algerian soil; many
others cannot return to their homeland, as Sahrawis in camps came from
xi