Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper is exploring how intersection of inequalities between the receiving population and migrants are addressed by the state public policy and practical assistance for forced migrants in Argentina. In autumn 2016, the Argentinian president Mauricio Macri claimed the readiness to accept 3000 Syrian refugees. However, it is a question whether the policy composition in the country and its economic realities offer a welcoming soil for this and other groups of forced migrants. Argentina has been a popular destination for the European refugees in the 20^thcentury, however the regulatory framework has been established only in the late 80s. Until 2006 there was no single and comprehensive law on the procedures for the refugee status recognition, rights and freedoms of recognized refugees and asylum seekers.

Through a series of interviews with the practitioners of NGOs and representatives of the National Commission for Refugees conducted in November-December 2016, I explored the two layers of institutional conditions shaping the course of integration of forced migrants in Argentina. The first one is the regulatory framework, and the second is the availability of active measures provided by civic society organizations to facilitate inclusion of refugees and humanitarian migrants into receiving society. I drew on the integration framework of Ager and Strang (2008) and analysed the scope of support available for each domain of this integration model: foundation, facilitators, social connections, markers and means.

The preliminary conclusions of this study are that with the relatively open and inclusive laws in the areas of access to the labour market, stable residency, education and health, the practical support for non-Spanish speaking groups is limited. Such situation results in the inability of these groups to exercise their rights. The work of the NGOs is not well coordinated and assistance is available for small number of beneficiaries. There is some positive trend of emerging civil society groups, who are hosting Syrian families or are applying to do so. Often driven only by their intentions to help, they are not trained social workers and their integration efforts are based on informal community networks. Even if 20^thcentury immigrants to Argentina also were mainly using the personal networks to re-establish their lives, such model might not be sufficient once more humanitarian migrants arrive.

Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(2), 166–191. doi:10.1093/jrs/fen016