EU-Latin America Relations: Analyzing the Dynamics of Bi-regional Migration Governance

Brumat L.; Jara S.C. · The Palgrave Handbook of EU-Latin American Relations (2025) · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80216-4_28

Resumen

Who are the main actors that lead the EU-Latin America interregional agenda in human mobility? What are their interests? What are the main patterns of interaction between them? This chapter addresses these questions by looking at official documents (declarations, legislation, minutes of meetings) and builds from interview material (N = 15) with Latin American government officials. Building from conceptual insights from global migration governance literature, and literature on the interaction between global, regional, and national norms, we suggest that the interregional agenda is characterized by Latin America’s ambivalence between alignment with and resistance to EU proposals (especially from Southern Cone countries) and by the EU’s interest in irregular migration, returns, and security issues. In the EU, negotiations are led by different branches of the European Commission and are powerfully influenced by the governments of the countries with stronger ties and interests in Latin America, with Spain playing a protagonist role. In Latin America, the Ministries of Interior and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs lead the negotiations. We find relevant subregional differences between Central American and Caribbean countries, whose interests in the migration agenda are centered around relations with the US, and South American countries, with stronger interdependencies with the EU. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Instituciones: Universidad del Pacífico