State and “Mixed Migrations”: Migration Policies Towards Haitians, Colombians and Venezuelans in Ecuador

Abstract

The term ‘mixed migration’ is often used as a means of reflecting a more complex understanding of the causes and motivations of people’s migration. While this term can be useful in overcoming binary interpretations between voluntary and forced migration in explaining current flows in South America, it may also have some unintended consequences when applied to migration policy. What effects does this understanding of migration have on the regularization of new migrants? Does the term allow or rather prevent forced migrants from accessing refugee status? We analyze these questions by examining Haitian, Colombian and Venezuelan migrants in Ecuador. On one side, we examine how the concept of mixed migration can render invisible some forms of forced displacement resulting from political, environmental or economic factors and, on the other side, we examine the type of policies undertaken by the state to address these displacements that do not fit either pure economic migration or asylum as defined by the 1951 Geneva Convention. We find that an uncritical use of the term, may favor the fall of these populations into irregular processes.