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ABSTRACT
People escaping from persecution, armed conflict or violence, face different problems in order to address their needs. Likewise, many host communities deny them the fulfilment of their rights and access to opportunities. In this process, the legal framework is extremely important to guarantee refugees and asylum seekers’ human rights. However, written law is not always the same as the law in action. This article analyses to what extent the progressive Ecuadorian legal framework on humanitarian immigration plays a role in the effective access to rights of the refugees and asylum seekers living in Cuenca, from the Capabilities approach. To this end, field research was carried out in this city, including interviews of local actors and governmental officers responsible for applying legal norms, as well as participant observation in local events related to the refuge. The results indicated that the role played by the State with regards to the legitimisation of refugees and asylum seekers and the operationalisation of law is still deficient, thereby, undermining the population’s access to rights and opportunities. Nonetheless, it was found that Cuenca offers the correct conditions to become a regional example of social inclusion for refugees and asylum seekers.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR), the VLIR-UC Project of International Migration and Local Development and the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Cuenca and the IOB Institute of the University of Antwerp. We would also like to show our gratitude to Professor Alejandro Anaya Muñoz for his comments and Professor German Calfat for being a guide and for his trust in our work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Erick Hernández Benítez is a graduate student of the Master of Governance and Development at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His research interests focus on migration, internally displaced persons and human rights, with specific emphasis on the interrelationship between migration and development. He currently works as Migration Coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme in Mexico and worked as a professor of International Economy and Public International Law at University of the Cloister of Sor Juana and the Institute of Juridical Sciences of Puebla, Mexico.
Maria-Jose Rivera is a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Cuenca and is part of the VLIR-UC Project of International Migration and Local Development. She is a graduate student of the Master of Globalisation and Development at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Her research interests focus on remittances, immigration public policy, and contemporary political philosophy on migration issues.
Notes
1. Daniela Malo, email message to author, June 2017.
2. Ibid.
3. Martha Nussbaum, ‘Capabilities and Human Rights’, Fordham Law Review 66, no. 2 (1997): 273–300.
4. Dawn Chatty and Philip Marfleet, ‘Conceptual Problems in Forced Migration’, Refugee Survey Quarterly 32, no. 2 (2013): 1–13.
5. Abdelmalek Sayad, The Suffering of the Immigrant (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).
6. Like Alexander Betts and others, Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions (Oxford: University of Oxford, 2014).
7. Martha Nussbaum, ‘Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and Social Justice’, Feminist Economics 9, no. 2–3 (2003): 33–59. doi:10.1080/1354570022000077926.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Martin Gottwald, ‘Protecting Colombian Refugees in the Andean Region: The Fight against Invisibility’, Agenda Internacional no. 23, (2006): 199–226.
12. Stanford University, ‘Mapping Militant Organizations: National Liberation Army (Colombia)’, http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/87 (accessed March 12, 2019).
13. Oxford Research Group, ‘The Legacy of Plan Colombia’, https://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/blog/the-legacy-of-plan-colombia (accessed March 10, 2019).
14. UNHCR, ‘Graduation Model Ecuador’, http://trickleup.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2015_UNHCR_Ecuador_Graduation_Newsletter_Aug.pdf (accessed July 20, 2017).
15. Ibid.
16. ACNUR, Registro Ampliado: una operación sin precedentes en América Latina, https://www.acnur.org/noticias/noticia/2010/4/5b0c21f710/registro-ampliado-una-operacion-sin-precedentes-en-america-latina.html (accessed March 12, 2019).
17. See note 1 above.
18. VLIR-UC Project of International Migration and Local Development (2016) Survey on Labour situation of Colombian refugees in Cuenca 2015-2016, CSV file.
19. See note 10 above.
20. Laura Barnett, ‘Global Governance and the Evolution of the International Refugee Regime’, International Journal of Refugee Law 14, no. 2 (2002): 238–62.
21. Marco Salamea, La Política en la Revolución Ciudadana (Cuenca: Universidad de Cuenca, 2016).
22. Catherine Walsh, ‘Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de) colonial entanglements’, Development 53, no. 1 (2010): 15–21.
23. Global Detention Project, Immigration Detention in Ecuador, http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/ (accessed August 4, 2017).
24. Presidencia de la República del Ecuador Intervención Presidencial en la Conferencia sobre crisis financiera y su impacto en el desarrollo mundial en la ONU, https://www.presidencia.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/10/06-25-09-Discurso-Conferencia_ONU.pdf (last modified June 25, 2009).
25. Jeff Pugh, ‘The UNHCR and Refugee Rights Protection in Ecuador: The Effects of Non-State Institutional Innovation on Peacebuilding and Human Security’, APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper, https://ssrn.com/abstract=1900446.
26. Ibid.
27. Juan Molina, ‘El registro ampliado: implicaciones solidarias y oportunidades del refugio en Ecuador’, Boletín de Coyuntura del Sistema de Información sobre Migraciones Andinas FLACSO, no. 2 (2010), http://www.flacsoandes.edu.ec/web/imagesFTP/13680.SIMA2.pdf.
28. Andrea Escalante, ‘Ecuador Issues ID to 27,000 refugees in remote northern areas of the country’, http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2010/4/4bbc3ce8f/ecuador-issues-id-27000-refugees-remote-northern-areas-country.html (last modified April 6, 2010).
29. See note 23 above.
30. See note 27 above.
31. Sebastian Muy, ‘El carnet de refugio no nos sirve aquí: Refugiados colombianos en Ecuador’, Revista iz3w 341 (2014): 4–6, https://asylumaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SebastianMuy_revista_alemana_ES.pdf.
32. Ibid.
33. ACNUR, Informe Anual 2013 Resumen Ejecutivo, http://www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2014/9723.pdf. (last modified August 2014).
34. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana, Agenda Nacional de Igualdad para la Movilidad Humana (ANIMHU), http://www.planificacion.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/09/Agenda_Nacional_Movilidad_Humana.pdf. (last modified 2014).
35. Daniela Ubidia, ‘La inconstitucionalidad parcial del Decreto 1182 sobre el derecho a solicitar refugio en el Ecuador: Análisis y efectos’, USFQ Law Review 2, no. 1 (2015): 145–72, http://revistas.usfq.edu.ec/index.php/lawreview/article/view/880/1111.
36. Johanna Roldán. ‘Desafío Normativo: Protección Internacional de Refugiados y Apátridas en Ecuador’, El Outsider, no. 2 (2014): 25–7.
37. See note 35 above.
38. See note 23 above.
39. Gery Nijenhuis and Maggi Leung, ‘Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development’, Forum for Development Studies 44, no. 1: 51–68.
40. Freddy Rivera et al., Migración Forzada de Colombianos (FLACSO Ecuador: Corporación Región, 2007).
41. See note 36 above.
42. Ibid.
43. INEC, ‘Reporte de pobreza y desigualdad – Junio 2017’, www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec (accessed December 22, 2018).
44. Including officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, two politicians and Assembly members of the political party Alianza País, representatives of local schools, one representative of a local hospital, one member of the gendarmerie, and one representative of the Office of the Public Defender.
45. Including one member of the local Chamber of Commerce, one media representative, two officers of local banks, one member of the Norwegian Council for Refugees, one member of the UNHCR and representatives of local NGO’s.
46. Including Colombian entrepreneurs living in Cuenca.
47. NRC is a well-known international humanitarian organization that is working on this topic in Ecuador.
48. The LHM establishes in its Article 49, that foreigners in Ecuador require a permanent residence for at least five years to participate in political processes.
49. Jeffrey D. Pugh, ‘Negotiation Identity and Belonging through the Invisibility Bargain: Colombian Forced Migrants in Ecuador’, International Migration Review (2017): 1–33.
50. Carlos Ortega and Oscar Ospina, Refugiados Urbanos en Ecuador (Quito: FLACSO Ecuador, 2012), 95.
51. ACNUR, ‘Hoja Informativa Ecuador abril 2016’, http://www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/Documentos/RefugiadosAmericas/Ecuador/2016/ACNUR_Ecuador_2016_General_ES_Abril.pdf. (accessed July 23, 2017).
52. Ibid.
53. Jane Janson, Defining and Measuring Social Cohesion (London: Commonwealth Secretariat and UNRISD, 2010).
54. See note 51 above.
55. See note 50 above.
56. Lana Balyk and Jeff Pugh, ‘Networked Governance in Ecuador’s Border Region’, Forced Migration Review (University of Oxford, 2013): 48–50.
57. ACNUR, ‘Brazil Declaration’, http://www.acnur.org/t3/fileadmin/Documentos/BDL/2014/9865.pdf (accessed February 14, 2014).
58. See note 22 above.
59. Coalición por las Migraciones y el Refugio, ‘Análisis del Proyecto de Ley de Movilidad Humana’, https://movilidadhumana.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/analisis-proyecto-de-ley-de-movilidad-humana-cmr.pdf. (accessed July 17, 2017).
60. See note 23 above.
61. See note 25 above.
62. See note 49 above.
63. See note 34 above.
64. Azfer A. Khan, ‘Can International Law Manage Refugee Crises?’, Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal 11, no. 1: 54–66.
65. Ibid.
66. Roger Zetter, ‘Labelling Refugees: Forming and Transforming a Bureaucratic Identity’, Journal of Refugees Studies 4, no. 1 (1991): 39–62.
67. See note 7 above.
68. Ibid.
69. See note 21 above.