Regional to national

Pragmatic implementation of South American migration policies

Bibliographic Data

ID21725614
AuthorsLeiza Brumat (0000-0001-5764-0170, United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies), Victoria Finn (0000-0001-6379-3720, University of Oslo, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-18
Publication date2026-07-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobalizations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-7731 • E-ISSN: 1474-774X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14747731.2026.2694264
OpenAlexW7167665900
LanguageEN
References cited59

Forced migration continues across the globe, extending in numbers and duration to form protracted displacement crises. To varying success rates, receiving states apply measures to select, control, and document newcomers. One of the largest displacements in history started in 2015 from Venezuela. Unlike other top receiving countries, Brazil granted a blanket refugee status and achieved the highest regularization rates in South America over the 2019–2022 period. Unpacking the mechanisms behind such relatively successful regularization, we argue that Brazil leaned on regional policies to reach this outcome. Via interviews with 42 key policy implementers, we find that they had shared ideas and used pragmatic implementation to enact regional norms and standards at the national level. The study contributes to debates on the role of bureaucrats in policy implementation and on the functioning of regionalism in Latin America, even during a displacement crisis

Clientelism · Displacement (psychology) · Forced migration · Latin Americans · Refugee · Regionalism (politics) · Unpacking · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration, Racism, and Human Rights · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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Open DOIOpen Access