Enlaces News #9 (May 2005)

Latin American Immigrants Make
Their Mark on the Fifth
World Social Forum

“'Would all of the people in the audience who are immigrants, please stand up?” asked Oscar Chacón, director of Enlaces América during his presentation on “Migration policy in the U.S.” at the First Social Forum on Migration. A group of thirty to forty people proudly stood up in a crowded room of over 400 attendees. The group received tremendous applause, but the relatively small proportion of migrants in the audience highlighted the under-representation of migrant groups in discussions and debate around migration.

This past January, Enlaces América sponsored a delegation of 25 immigrant leaders to the fifth World Social Forum (WSF) and the first Social Forum on Migration, both held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Members of the delegation represented Central American,Mexican, Brazilian, Bolivian, Colombian, Paraguayan, Peruvian and Garifuna (black Central American) migrant communities around the world. This year Enlaces América expanded its delegation to include migrant leaders residing outside the United States. The group included Colombian refugees in Ecuador, Paraguayans and Bolivians residing in Argentina, Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica and an Ecuadorian leader living in Spain.

The dynamic group of migrant leaders presenteda series of workshops on topics such as migration policy, economic development, global citizenship,and transnational communities. These workshops examined the forces behind migration flows and discussed the larger role that migrants are beginning to play in influencing policies that affect their communities, both in their countries of residence and in their countries of origin. Members of the U.S.- based alliance of immigrant-led organizations, NALACC ( National Alliance for Latin American and Caribbean Communities) discussed the challenges and opportunities for this new network.

The workshop titles included, “Poverty, Migration, Remittances and Development”; “Building Transnational Power”; and “Concrete Steps toward a Migrant Summit of the Americas.” The last workshop drew a wide range of participants and sparked an insightful discussion about how to strengthen migrant organizations in the international arena. For a summary of that discussion, see the article, “Concrete Steps toward a Migrant Summit of the Americas” by Zulema Montero

The issues of migration, migrants’ rights, and democracy were more visible at this year’s World Social Forum, perhaps as a result of the prominence of these issues at the Americas Social Forum this past July. The two-day Forum on Migration that preceded the WSF marked the first time migration has received a dedicated discussion space at a World Social Forum. Plans for a 2nd Hemispheric Migration Workshop are already in place for the 2006 Americas’ Social Forum in Venezuela.

The WSF has proved particularly useful for articulating the linkages between different issues such as environmental degradation, trade, poverty, and migration. Angela Sanbrano, of CARECEN in Los Angeles commented, “Listening to each others’ stories and sharing the challenges and successes we’ve faced as individuals, organizations, and migrants has energized us all to return home to our communities with a renewed. sense of the importance of our work and the extent to which the struggles of migrants is truly a global phenomenon.”

The WSF also offered the members of the delegation from NALACC (National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities) the opportunity to promote their organization in an international forum and to educate participants about the challenges, struggles, and steps they have taken in the last year to organize their communities, build alliances, and engage in the policy-making process. After learning about NALACC, Dora Aguirre, an Ecuadorian living in Spain, representing the organization Rumiñahui, commented, “We are excited about the work that NALACC is doing in the United Status and it has encouraged us to reach out to other migrant-led groups and begin to build greater social and political capital locally, regionally, and globally”.

Migrant-led organizations play an important role in communicating the needs, struggles, and aspirations of their communities. The WSF gives migrant leaders the chance to extend their networks and participate in debates and discussions around policies affecting their communities. Enlaces continues to send delegations to the Social Forums because they provide a platform where migrant leaders can share their experiences with other migrant groups and with civil society organizations around the globe. As Nelson Saenz, from the Association de Personas en Condición de Refugio en el Ecuador (ASOREC) remarked, “The Social Forum was an incredible learning process for all of us. We realize there is a lot of work to be done, but it is at these meetings where we begin to build relationships and create a foundation on which real changes can be made.”