In Asunción, Paraguay, on the 1st and 2nd of November 2016, representatives of the Latin American Civil Society, convened by the International Scalabrini Migration Network (SIMN) and the Scalabrini Foundation, met in the framework of the regional meeting of the MADE-Americas process (Migration and Development Civil Society Network), with the theme: “Civil Society and Migration Policies in the Region: Consolidating proposals for the South American Migration Conference and the Global Forum on Migration and Development.”
The first day’s agenda was to prepare a consensus document to be presented at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) to be held in Bangladesh from December 10th to the 12th of December of 2016. The second day was more oriented in drafting the document to be presented to the CSM (South American Conference on Migration), which was done on November 3rd and 4th.
These two documents want to bring the voice of Latin American Civil Society to the attention of the world, through the FMMD, and to South America, through the CSM.
At the opening of the meetings, Fr. Lauro Bocchi, president of the Scalabrini Foundation in Santiago, Chile, said: “Migration continues to be a present reality in our cities, in our homes, in our squares, in the streets, in the workplaces, post offices, public services, and it has diversified into different nationalities. We see the migrants in the most humble jobs, which they do with pleasure, but also with the knowledge of their jobs and their education. This reality shows that migrants are not only members of our societies, but constructors of more inclusive societies “.
In the concluding notes of the meetings, Fr. Leonir Chiarello, Executive Director of SIMN, summed up the results of these two days of meetings with these words: “The results of our deliberations in these two days of meetings, which will be presented at the FMMD and the CSM, will allow us to reiterate the perspective of the centrality of the person, of integral human development, of human rights, of the free movement and residence of migrants in the processes of regional integration, among other subjects, with which the civil society organizations of Latin America committed to promoting ethical governance of migration.”