Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intra-regional agreements, migrants, and the state

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This project analyzes the process that led to the national implementation of Residency Agreements among nations affiliated with Mercosur. Mercosur is a regional trade agreement among developing countries in South America that is designed to resolve unauthorized migration in a manner that protects the rights of immigrants without compromising national security. Beginning in 2002 nationals of the affiliated countries could relocate, obtain legal residency, and access civil, economic, cultural, and social rights. By 2014, nine out of twelve South American countries had affiliated with Mercosur and included the Residency Agreements in their national migration policy. The widespread adaptation of this policy suggests that policymakers had to build support for these agreements from government officials and migrant advocates within six countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This project analyzes the process that led to the national implementation of the agreements in these six countries to identify the actors and factors that facilitated or hindered the agreement's adaptation as national legislation. This project expands our understanding of how regional migration policy can serve as a tool to reform national immigration law. This project will also identify new models and strategies for addressing unauthorized migration that can inform policymakers and advocates around the world. Specifically, this project analyzes the impact of Mercosur regionalism in the six countries that negotiated and first adapted the Residency Agreements. Using comparative historical methods, this project identifies the international forces, regional contexts, and the domestic legal, political, and economic factors that facilitated or hindered the passage of the Residency Agreements at the national level. It also identifies the key actors and the policy networks shaping this regional to national policy change. The Co-Principal Investigator conducted N=112 interviews, created a regional and national migration policy database, and compiled an economic growth and trade indicators database. Overall, this research bridges international migration and regionalism literatures and identifies new processes that reform immigration law. This project contributes to the theory by specifying how regional migration policy is a determinant of national immigration policy.