- The meeting was held to strengthen the Mexican government’s human mobility strategy, especially with regard to work opportunities and the integration of migrants and refugees in Mexico.
Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Interior Secretary Luisa Alcalde Luján and Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of the Emerson Collective, held a working meeting today at the Foreign Ministry to explore opportunities for collaboration to promote labor mobility and strengthen the implementation of the Mexican government’s new Multiservice Centers for Inclusion and Development, which will serve migrants and refugees in Mexico.
“Our goal is to properly integrate migrants into our national territory,” said Secretary Alicia Bárcena. “Therefore, we are creating three new multiservice centers to provide comprehensive services to migrants and asylum-seekers. The aim is to offer them documentation services, help them find jobs and provide them with social assistance and protection,” she said.
The two Mexican officials explained the Mexican Model of Human Mobility, highlighting its emphasis on protecting human rights and providing pathways for integrating migrants into the labor market at all stages of the migration cycle.
During the meeting, the secretaries of foreign affairs and the interior and the president of the Emerson Collective discussed possible areas of cooperation and the current challenges related to migration in Mexico and the United States from a regional perspective.
“It is essential to provide work opportunities so that migrants can have a regular status while in Mexico,” said the foreign secretary.
Interior Secretary Luisa María Alcalde said that Mexico is working to demonstrate that models of regular migration are possible, and benefit both migrants and the societies that host them.
They acknowledged the progress made by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on the Tapachula Multiservice Center, which is currently under construction.
They also discussed the work being done by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid) to adapt the next Multiservice Center in Huixtla, together with the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The meeting addressed collaborative measures to meet the needs of the Mexican population in the United States. The strategic objectives focus on two key groups: the 5.3 million undocumented Mexicans and the 440,930 enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program.
These collaboration projects exemplify the Mexican government’s vision of a more orderly, safe, regular and humane migration, in close inter-institutional coordination through the Interministerial Commission for Comprehensive Migration Management (CIAIMM) with civil society, the private sector and UN agencies, funds and programs.
The meeting was attended, for the Interior Ministry, by Arturo Medina Padilla, Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration, and Carlos Antonio Vázquez García, head of the Unit for Migration Policy, Registration and Identity of Persons (UPMRIP).
The Foreign Ministry was represented by Chief Officer for North America Roberto Velasco; Arturo Rocha, Director General for Human Mobility and Development; Legal Advisor Alejandro Celorio; Martín Borrego, Chief of Staff to the Foreign Secretary; and Carlos Castillo, Amexcid Director General of Planning and Evaluation.
