The Politics of Migration in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

While border crossings to the United States continue to dominate news headlines, migration has accelerated within Latin America, driven in large part by the economic decline in Venezuela. Migration has increased at a time that many Latin American countries continue to face high crime rates and increasing support for right-wing populists. This panel examines the political consequences of Latin American migration: to what extent does migration contribute to punitive criminal justice policies? What policies can reduce violence against migrants? What are the social and political effects of increasingly strict border policies? And how do the experiences of leaving a given country affect migrants’ political orientations and behavior in their host country? This panel provides new evidence on the politics of migration, drawing on original survey and administrative data, and shed light on the ways that Latin American societies face unique challenges of incorporating immigrants during periods of rising crime and social protest.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Chair

• Margaret E. Peters University of California, Los Angeles

Discussant

• Jesse Acevedo University of Denver

Individual Presentations

• Immigration and Punitive Responses to Criminal Violence - Giancarlo Visconti, University of Maryland, College Park; Miguel Carreras, University of California, Riverside; Sofia B. Vera, University of Kansas

• Reducing Citizen Support for State Violence against Undocumented Immigrants - Abby B. Cordova, University of Notre Dame; Natan Skigin, Harvard University

• Visa policies and porous borders: Quasi-experimental evidence on their short and long-term effects from Peru - Omar Hammoud Gallego, Durham University; Mathias Poertner, London School of Economics and Political Science; Luisa Freier, Universidad del Pacífico

• Legacies of Conflict and Immigrants’ Political Attitudes - Alisha Caroline Holland, Harvard University