Migration governance in South America: regional approaches versus national laws

Abstract

Regional Consultative Processes (RCPs) have become the standard for multilateral migration policy discussion over the last two decades. RCPs are geographically bounded, non-binding meetings organized voluntarily by states and promoted by international organizations. Our chapter contributes to accumulating knowledge regarding the migration governance role of RCPs by investigating the South American Conference on Migration (CSM). We conduct a thematic analysis of CSM documents from its first annual meeting in 2000 until 2017 to find the most salient themes. We then examine migration-related legislation to uncover to what extent national laws incorporate regional discussion and accords. We find that although multilateral cooperation has created a set of common standards and practices, their domestic incorporation remains uneven. This chapter sheds light on the synergy between regional-level priorities and national-level laws, revealing a limitation of regional migration governance.