Welcome to MiLA’s first blog post! First, let us introduce ourselves and tell you a bit about what the MiLA network does. Two years ago, Migration in Latin America (MiLA); a research and knowledge exchange project, was fostered by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with the Institute of Legal Studies (IIJ) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to generate an interdisciplinary space for studies on migration in Latin America. Having received initial GCRF funding in March 2019 and additional support from the Edinburgh Law School and the Centre for Contemporary Latin American Studies, MiLA officially launched at the International Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on the 10th and 11th of June 2019. This hugely successful workshop brought together a multidisciplinary and international network of leading academics, early career researchers, and research students from Economics, Political Sciences, Architecture, Law, Social Psychology, Languages as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students with interests in Latin American Studies. It also included representatives of NGOs and international organisations sharing expertise and experiences in a wide range of themes related to labour migration broadly conceived in Latin America, with particular focus on the needs of Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. This conversation was carried out in the light of the paradigm shift on global migration narrative, focusing on the agency as well as the vulnerability of migrants.
The workshop saw the participation of what is now, MiLA’s core research team, including: MiLA’s principal investigator, Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (Edinburgh School of Law); co-investigators, Alethia Fernández de la Reguera Ahedo (IIJ, UNAM), Marcia Vera Espinoza (Queen Mary University of London); research associate, Nuria González Martin (IIJ, UNAM) and lead research assistant, Valentina Rioseco from Edinburgh Law School (who is currently on maternity leave).
Distinguished speakers included Pablo Ceriani (Universidad Nacional de Lanus, Argentina); Jorge Schiavon (Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas, Mexico); Leiza Brumat (European University Institute); Diego Acosta (University of Bristol); Soledad Garcia-Ferrari (Edinburgh, School of Architecture); Jackie Wahba (University of Southampton); Maia Guell (Edinburgh, School of Economics); Joanna Clifton-Sprigg (University of Bath); Luciana Gandini (UNAM, Mexico; Hans van Loon (The Hague Conference, The Netherlands); Alvaro Botero (Organisation of American States, Washington); Claudia Leon (Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes (NGO), Chile); and Nurit Novis Deutsch (University of Haifa, Israel).
Not only did the workshop solidify Edinburgh and UNAM’s partnership but it provided a foundational basis for MiLA’s further partnerships and future collaborations on cross-disciplinary research in migration in Latin America. Connections were established between Edinburgh scholars and academics and organisations from Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, the countries involved in MiLA’s proposal, and beyond.
Several key themes arose from the workshop as part of the emerging future research agenda for MILA. Within these, the need to empower civil society and generate further participatory processes that enables civil society’s concerns to be prioritised was a central concern. It was broadly agreed that there is lack of sufficiently inclusive engagement, and that sharing of good practices between Latin American countries in relation to enabling civil society’s participation is something that the network itself could aim to facilitate.
Following the workshop, MiLA’s research team carried out a mapping exercise revealing that successful integration models in Latin American countries have been a common concern between migrant communities, NGOs, academics and policy makers.
Since then, MiLA network has continued to collaborate internationally online via Zoom events including its first Academic Roundtable which took place in January 2021 (see blog post 2 title) and its International Seminar on Inclusion and Integration of Migrants in Latin America which is due to take place on May 5th, 2021.
MiLA’s research team has incorporated new research assistants in 2020-21, Ella Keating (Edinburgh School of Law), Nuni Vieira Jorgensen (Queen Mary University of London), Gabriela García García (University of Aberdeen) and Victoria Cunto.
