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Global Health Econ Sustain Latin American Liberal migration policies

to a “total social fact” (the reference is to Marcel Mauss Mexico. At the turn of the century, immigration to Latin
4
concept). 1 America doubled. Remarkably, the region transitioned
Over the last years, international organizations from hosting 7 million immigrants in 1990 to nearly 15
2
and governments around the world have decided to million in 2020.
prioritize migration on their political agenda. The Until now, international research has exhibited unequal
first intergovernmental agreement, prepared under focus on migration transpiring within the Southern, non-
the auspices of the United Nations, to assure the global Western parts of the world when compared to the attention
migration government has been ratified in Marrakesh, devoted to South-North migration. The abundant scientific
Morocco, on December 10, 2018: the Global Compact production is accompanied and framed by the media
for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (A/RES/73/195). narrative that often portrays migration as a biblical exodus
However, despite this international initiative, a global “from the Global South to the Global North.” This interplay
governance system for migration is not on the horizon; between research and media portrayal is part of a political
on the contrary, as argued in this paper, regional, national, macro-vision (Hanson, 2010). This overarching perspective
and local peculiarities prevail in discourses, policies, posits that access to international mobility has evolved into
legislation, political debates, and public perceptions of the a new form of inequality in the global distribution of wealth,
migratory fact. which divides the affluent countries from the economically

As a global phenomenon, migration has become disadvantaged ones, as Baumann (2000) highlighted. We
“multidirectional.” Most immigration to Europe and the assert that this narrative is partial, and comprehending the
USA — the “developed Western countries” — originates complex inter-relationships of migration with hierarchies
from the Southern hemisphere (and the Eastern regions in between nations and political supra-national organizations
the European context), which encompasses comparatively (e.g., the European Union, Mercosur, and BRICS)
less developed, poorer regions, and countries. These necessitates a more comprehensive perspective. This
migratory flows converge on the northern Mediterranean holistic understanding can only be achieved by considering
shores or the northern banks of the Rio Grande. However, the South-South migration, a point recently underscored
the scope of Southern migration is not exclusively North- by several scholars, among whom Geddes (2021).
bound. Inter-South or South-South migration represents Moreover, Freier De Ferrari (2016) contends that while
40% of international migration flows, and Southern the conceptual differentiation between a more developed,
countries accept three-quarters of all the world’s refugees. richer “North” and a less developed, poorer “South” is
3
Major inter-regional migrations take place in sub-Saharan heuristically useful, geographically, the North-South
Africa (Bredeloup & Pliez, 2005), Southeast Asia and the terminology is misleading. It falls short of encapsulating
Latin American region. In our paper, we define the Latin historical, geographical, and economic realities. The
American region to include all the countries in South concept of “Global South” is far from being homogeneous
America, Central America, and the Caribbean, as well as with respect to economic conditions. Although Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is not the perfect
1 “These phenomena are at once legal, economic, metric, it does offer insights into the average income and
religious, aesthetic, morphological and so on.
They are legal in that they concern individual and living standards of a country’s population. For example,
collective rights, organized and diffuse morality; Uruguay in Latin America boasts a GDP surpassing that
they may be entirely obligatory, or subject simply of Croatia, Poland, and Hungary. Countries such as Chile,
to praise or disapproval. They are at once political Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay all surpass the global
and domestic, being of interest both to classes average GDP (PPP) per capita, a significant determinant
and to clans and families. They are religious; they influencing inter-regional migration.
concern true religion, animism, magic and diffuse
religious mentality. They are economic, for the An aspect of South-South migration that merits further
notions of value, utility, interest, luxury, wealth, investigation pertains to political discourses, policies,
acquisition, accumulation, consumption and liberal and laws. Do these aspects align with or diverge from
and sumptuous expenditure are all present...” those observed in Northern regions? Starting in the late
(Mauss, 1950 translation by Cunnison, 1966: 1970s, Western countries — namely Europe, the USA,
76-77).
2 https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2015/11/11/ 4 Even if the definition we use includes Mexico and
migration-a-global-issue-in-need-of-a-global-solution the Caribbean, the article mainly focus on the
3 https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/ experience of the Southern American countries,
interview/2021/7/8/why-south-south-migration-has- namely Argentina and Brazil, which are also the most
long-been-overlooked important immigration countries in the continent.

Volume 1 Issue 1 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.0861