*EPF208 08/15/00
Symposium on Migration in the Americas to be Held in Costa Rica
(U.S. "very supportive" of Sept. 4-6 San Jose event) (550)
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A symposium on international migration in the Americas, to which the United States is contributing a majority portion of the event's operational budget, will be held September 4-6 in San Jose, Costa Rica, the State Department announced.

One of the symposium's objectives will be to "help frame or crystalize migration issues" for discussion at the next Summit of the Americas, to be held in Quebec City in April 2001, said a State Department official. The United States was the "responsible coordinator" for implementing the migrant workers initiative at the previous Summit of the Americas in Santiago in 1998, the official said, and as such is "very supportive" of the upcoming San Jose symposium, "because we see this activity as quite complementary to our purposes."

Primary organizers for the symposium are the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In describing the objectives for the symposium, ECLAC said the gathering will provide an opportunity for policymakers, experts, international agencies, non-governmental and other civil society organizations to meet and discuss regional migration issues. Special attention will be given to possible scenarios for international action in the future.

ECLAC said international migration has emerged as one of the key issues for the 21st century. In the Americas, ECLAC said that since the 1960s, an increasing number of people have been migrating, both within Latin America and the Caribbean, and to the United States. Thus, another major objective for this symposium, ECLAC said, is to analyze the economic, social and political effects of migration on the countries migrants leave, as well as the countries to which they migrate.

Julia Taft, assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), said at a migration conference in March that one of the United States' highest migration priorities is combating the growth of extra-regional migrant trafficking in the hemisphere. Increasingly sophisticated alien smugglers, many from Asia, are targeting countries in the region more than ever before, either as final destinations or transit locations to other countries in the hemisphere, she said. Taft's bureau has primary responsibility within the U.S. government for formulating policies on population, refugees, and migration, and for administering U.S. refugee assistance and admissions programs.

Representing the United States at the San Jose symposium will be PRM's Deputy Assistant Secretary Marguerite Rivera Houze and Allan Jury, director of PRM's Office of Policy and Resource Planning.

The State Department says current information on regional migration issues can be accessed on the Internet at the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM) Virtual Secretariat's web site at www.crmsv.org (in Spanish). The United States provided funding for the purchase of computer hardware and software, and training, enabling member states of the RCM to participate more actively in the Virtual Secretariat. RCM member states are Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the United States.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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