Context and Background: Regional Strategy for UNESCO’s Response to the Situation of People on the Move in Latin America and the Caribbean

The UNESCO offices in Latin America and the Caribbean, under the coordination of the Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean OREALC/UNESCO Santiago, have proposed the development of a regional strategy that provides a response from UNESCO based on the needs of the region’s countries for guaranteeing the right to education of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and returnees. The purpose of this document is to present key information for the development of the regional strategy. It reviews a set of information that contextualizes human mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean, recognizing contemporary trends, identifying their driving factors and describing the main demographic qualities that characterize them.

The authors then address the needs for protection of individuals in the context of mobility in the region, particularly those associated with the exercise of their fundamental rights and processes of inclusion in social protection systems in the destination society. They then present the right to education as a multiplier right in contexts of human mobility, reviewing the main obstacles faced by migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and returnees. Finally, the text presents a discussion of UNESCO’s role in this context based on the review of international regulatory instruments and frameworks, institutional frameworks, the work agenda at the regional level and the migratory institutional structure in Latin America and the Caribbean.