Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics
Building Better Bridges: Improving Regional Response to Refugees in Latin America through Solidarity Mary Freiner, Samford University Despite the security issues associated with the sudden outpouring of over four million Venezuelan refugees into other parts of Latin America, reactions from neighboring nations have been shockingly proactive and sympathetic. Through solidarity, States have created a network of bridges across which they can better facilitate the implementation of regional agreements. To conceptualize the relationship between regional solidarity and implementation of regional refugee policies, this study compares Colombia’s implementation of the Brazil Plan of Action during the Venezuelan refugee crisis to Venezuela’s previous enforcement of the Mexico Plan of Action during the Colombian refugee crisis. Although the integration of refugees into the host country has not improved significantly since 2011, the protection and aid of refugees have greatly increased under the Brazil Plan of Action. These findings affirm that when regional solidarity is fortified through more precise goals and broader participation from the regional community, refugee quality of life and security increase for the region as a whole. INTRODUCTION
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fter spending time with Venezuelan refugees during the summer of 2019, in Bucaramanga, Colombia, my view of refugee resettlement dramatically changed. Because of Venezuela’s deteriorating economy, countless individuals roam the city’s streets unemployed, pregnant mothers do not receive prenatal care, and numerous children fall behind in their education. Unfortunately, these occurrences typically transpire from forced immigration. However, continual misfortune is not the case for every person. Some refugees earn enough money to send for their loved ones back home, and others live comfortably in tall apartment buildings. If 4.3 million refugees are all simultaneously seeking to establish better lives in Latin America, what separates the “haves” from the “have nots”? (Grupo Intergencial sobre Flujos Migratorios Mixtos, August 2019, 1; hereafter GIFMM and Bennouna 2019). Latin America has made great strides to improve the number of refugees who “have.” However, research has not confirmed that the lives of refugees have improved nor does it explain which changes in policy have been the most effective. The pivot in refugee policy began with the construction of the Cartagena Declaration in 1984. Rather than acting exclusively as individual states to devise their specified plans of action, countries in Latin America have agreed to adopt the principle of regional solidarity and meet every ten years to outline regional programs and standards of treatment for refugees. With each agreement, more goals are included, and the rights of refugees become more specific. If each new 8
agreement is intended to augment the previous plan, it is imperative to analyze these refugee policies consecutively to capture their sequential and progressive nature. Thus, an important question arises: to what extent does this increase in regional solidarity improve implementation of regional policy goals? In this article, regional solidarity is defined as joint action grounded in a shared interest built around a certain common identity or affinity. Whether increased regional solidarity has improved implementation was evaluated by the extent to which Venezuela previously implemented the Mexico Plan of Action (MPA) and the degree to which Colombia is currently implementing the Brazil Plan of Action (BPA). These particular countries were chosen because Colombia experienced a significant refugee crisis beginning in the late 1990s, which lasted within the time frame of the MPA (2004). Whereas, the Venezuelan refugee crisis falls under the umbrella of both the MPA and BPA (2014). (See Figure 1). As signatories of these two most recent regional refugee policies, the solidarity principle states that Colombia has a responsibility to reciprocate Venezuela’s treatment of Colombian refugees. However, in February of 2019, Maduro “decided to sever all ties with the fascist government of Colombia” (Romero 2019). With this bilateral tie severed, scholars are confronted with a new question: does reciprocity still exist between countries committed to regional solidarity? The analysis of these two case studies leads to two overarching conclusions. First, the increase in precision and scope of regional agreements improved the capacity of member states to implement refugee
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