Coffee for Integration: Insights on Empowering Migrants and Refugees in the Americas

Keough School Washington Office | Zoom Webinar
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., May 3, 2022

This event has now concluded. A video recording is available below.

The global economy depends on the contributions of international migrant workers, who make up almost five percent of the workforce worldwide. Yet these workers experience greater vulnerabilities: They occupy insecure and lower-paying jobs, face barriers to accessing basic social services, and are at higher risk for trafficking and gender-based violence.

What lessons can the Americas—home to approximately a quarter of all migrant workers—share for promoting the human dignity of this population? What can the region teach us about employing workers and encouraging entrepreneurship? And what can policymakers do to help economically integrate migrants and refugees?

Join us for a policy discussion and hear insights from experts who will explore these questions. This panel is part of  the Government of Colombia’s “Coffee for Integration” series.

This discussion will be primarily in Spanish, but translation will be available for attendees who are watching via Zoom.

Presented by the Government of Colombia, the Organization of American States’ Department of Social Inclusion, and by the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and its Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Photo: “Migrant Worker and Cucumbers, Blackwater, VA” by Bread for the World is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.


Speakers

Diana Ángeles Santander

Director of Social Security and Labor Migration, Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion, Peru

Álvaro Botero

Coordinator, Unit on Refugees and Forced Displacement, Department of Social Inclusion, Organization of American States

Abby Córdova

Associate Professor of Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

Lucas Gómez

Border Manager, Government of Colombia

Dr. Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian

Director of the Department of Social Inclusion, Organization of American States

Amb. Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado

Permanent Representative of Colombia to the Organization of American States

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán

Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

Maricarmen Plata

Secretary for Access to Rights and Equity, Organization of American States

Marcos Solano

National Director of Employment, Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Government of Costa Rica

Magali Stretch

Assistant Director in the Settlement and Integration Policy Branch at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

Andrés Felipe Uribe Medina

Vice Minister of Employment and Pensions, Government of Colombia