SWITZERLAND / CANADA – The government of Canada and the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced the launch of the project “Integramos – Strengthening the Capacity of Government and Civil Society Actors to Improve the Socioeconomic Integration of Venezuelan Refugee and Migrant Women in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.”
The project was announced on the 10 of October, 2024 by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Senior Director of Bilateral, Regional and International Engagement, Shannon Marie Soni, at the plenary meeting of the Regional Conference on Migration and the South American Conference on Migration (CRM-CSM) in Bogotá.
The project financed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will seek, within the framework of the Regional Strategy for Socio-economic Integration, to contribute to the socio-economic integration of migrants in these three countries. This will provide greater access to decent jobs to better leverage their contribution to the development of destination countries.
To this end, project activities will aim to strengthen public employment and business development services, support employers’, workers’ and civil society organizations in the area of fair recruitment and promote good practices and strategies around the socioeconomic integration of migrants in regional and bilateral coordination mechanisms, including in initiatives to facilitate the mutual recognition of competencies and certifications.
“This project will also facilitate enhanced regional collaboration on migration issues. ILO will leverage its observer status in regional forums, including the RCM, the SACM, L.A. Declaration and the Quito Process, to provide guidance and expertise on labour, education, gender and anti-trafficking matters,” said director Soni.
According to the latest data from the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V), the Venezuelan refugee and migrant population exceeds 7.7 million worldwide; of these, over 6.5 million are in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over 2.8 million Venezuela refugees and migrants are in Colombia, 1.5 million in Peru, and almost 500 thousand in Ecuador. While refugees and migrants face specific challenges to integrate and access decent work opportunities throughout their migratory journey, migrant women and transgender people also face several specific challenges related to their gender and gender identity, country of origin, and care responsibilities. Despite these barriers, the migrant population has the potential to contribute positively to their countries of origin, transit and destination.
This new grant agreement with Canada will allow the ILO to considerably expand the scope of work in the Andean countries, with partners such as Sida, AECID, the EU and USAID. The ILO will continue to promote access to decent work opportunities for Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and the host population in these three countries and in the region.
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