SIMN – CEMLA – CLACSO
JUNE 29, 2026
As part of a joint effort by SIMN, CEMLA, and CLACSO, the book “Public Migration Policies and Civil Society in Latin America and the Caribbean: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama” was launched—a work that provides an in-depth analysis of the migration landscape in seven Central American countries.
The event brought together institutional leaders, academics, and stakeholders involved in migration-related efforts, establishing itself as a forum for regional reflection on the challenges and opportunities of human mobility.
The work and the dialogue generated during its presentation reaffirm a central idea: migration governance in Latin America and the Caribbean requires effective coordination between the State and civil society, grounded in human rights, shared responsibility, and regional cooperation.
In this frame, the need arises to move towards renewed levels of migration governance, structured around four key dimensions:
- Transforming perceptions and building a new narrative on migration: emphasis was placed on the urgent need to move beyond restrictive or stigmatizing approaches and instead promote a narrative that recognizes migrants as rights-holders, agents of development, and “prophets of hope”—bearers of resilience, dignity, and transformative capacity.
- Addressing the structural challenges of migration: research shows that human mobility in the region is growing, complex, and structural in nature, driven by factors such as poverty, violence, and economic crises. This demands responses that tackle root causes, going beyond merely reactive measures.
- Promoting new state-led responses: the need was identified to move toward comprehensive, evidence-based, and cross-sectoral public policies; to improve implementation levels in order to bridge the gap between policy and practice; and to establish coordinated, multi-level governance among countries and institutions.
- Recognizing the strategic role of civil society: the study reaffirms that civil society is an indispensable actor in migration governance, playing a key role in humanitarian assistance and care, the promotion and defense of rights, and advocacy regarding migration policies.
The launch underscored the need to build a culture of ethical migration governance, grounded in human dignity as a guiding principle, a rights-based approach, solidarity and shared responsibility, and the active participation of multiple stakeholders.
Against this backdrop, the role of academia stood out—called upon to contribute to a new epistemology of migration capable of generating critical and situated knowledge, transcending reductionist views, and providing evidence for fairer public policies.
One of the event’s key messages was that migration should be understood not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity for development, provided that appropriate, inclusive, and coordinated policies are in place.
The organizers called upon States, civil society, academia, and international organizations to strengthen regional and multi-level cooperation; overcome institutional fragmentation in migration policies; ensure the effective implementation of normative frameworks; fully recognize migrants as rights-holders and agents of development; and foster a new culture of migration based on ethics, dignity, and hope.
Migration governance in Latin America and the Caribbean requires comprehensive, humane, and cooperative responses—forged through coordination among States, civil society, and the international community—to address the growing complexity of human mobility.
PHG/JUNE 2026