The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) “promotes policies and partnerships to transform vulnerability into resilience, and mobility into integration,” said Social Development Coordinator Gustavo Herrera at the opening of the II Virtual Workshop on strategies for the integration of migrant women and girls: employment and youth, held on Tuesday.

“This is a commitment to strengthening technical capacities, creating mechanisms for labour inclusion and developing programmes with a focus on gender, youth and human rights (…) Our region has the potential to turn migration flows into a source of innovation, productivity and inclusive growth, if we are able to guarantee rights, access to decent employment and social protection,” Herrera said.

For her part, Diana Martínez, Technical Secretary of the Regional Network of Civil Organisations for Migration (RROCM), stressed that “as civil society, we have witnessed the profound impact that mobility processes have on migrant women and girls, as well as their capacity for transformation and resilience in the face of often adverse contexts (…) We firmly believe that the socio-economic integration of migrant women and girls must go hand in hand with their autonomy, security and empowerment. Only in this way will we be able to move towards a more just and equal region.”

The II Virtual Workshop on strategies for the integration of migrant women and girls: employment and youth was organised by SELA in conjunction with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM); UN Women; the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS); the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); and the Regional Network of Civil Society Organisations for Migration (RROCM).

Officials from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Guyana, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, among other member states, participated in the Virtual Workshop, which featured five discussion panels led by Miram Bande Zablah, Senior Regional Advisor, Head of Office at UN Women; Miguel Ángel Ramírez Villela, Specialist and Researcher in Social Security at the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS); Roberto Cancel, Regional Specialist in Labour Migration and Human Development at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM); Karina Arriaza, Deputy Director of the Programme for Care, Mobilisation and Advocacy for Children and Adolescents (PAMI); and Byron Cárdenas, Human Rights Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The II Virtual Workshop on strategies for the integration of migrant women and girls: employment and youth is part of SELA’s Work Programme for 2022 –2026, specifically of the programme for the Promotion of a Comprehensive Vision of Human Mobility, aimed at making better use of the opportunities presented by cooperation among countries of origin, destination and transit, in order to positively impact the development offered by human mobility, understood from a comprehensive vision that involves the region’s socio-economic development processes. This workshop also constitutes a key step on the road to the 2026 International Migration Review Forum (FEMI), contributing evidence and best practices that strengthen migration governance processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.