Political Invisibility and Migrants’ Networked Governance Strategies in Ecuador

Chapter 7 illustrates how the invisibility bargain has shaped the opportunities and limitations constraining Colombian migrants in Ecuador, and how they have responded to pursue access to rights, resources, recognition, and protection. It shows that the strategies that migrants pursue most often are those that are individual and do not require collective action, but that the strategies that work are those that do not require overt claims made on the state that could invoke a backlash from the host population. Instead, informal brokering, indirect strategies, and coalition building were all associated with better access to the governance network, and as a result, better human security outcomes. The empirical cases of the 2008 constitution, Enhanced Registration, and the Interagency Program for Peace and Development in the northern border zone illustrate the mechanisms through which networked governance has improved migrant human security in Ecuador, as well as the limitations and risks.

Comparing Governance Networks and Human Security Outcomes in Six Ecuadorian Provinces

Chapter 4, the first chapter of the empirical core of the book, introduces the context of the northern border region of Ecuador and the six provinces in which subnational comparative field research was conducted. Drawing primarily on survey data from more than 650 foreign (95% Colombian) migrants, the chapter maps the institutional network structure of six major migrant-receiving provinces, including capital cities of Esmeraldas, Tulcán, Lago Agrio, Ibarra, Quito, and Santo Domingo. The chapter compares the institutional relations and the level of coordination in each locality with the human security and peacebuilding outcomes experienced by the migrants who live there. Using network analysis and comparisons across localities, it provides evidence for the claim that state capacity and economic development level are less persuasive as explanations for human security experienced by migrants than network density and diversity.

Conclusion

The book concludes in chapter 8 by summarizing the main arguments laid out in the previous chapters and highlighting the contribution that this book makes to the study of migrant integration, security, and governance around the world. It elaborates a number of concrete policy implications of the findings for migrant-serving NGOs, international organizations, and state agencies tasked with human security and peacebuilding in migrant-receiving countries, especially in the Global South. It also suggests directions for further research, including comparative work across populations and temporal periods, and explores the future applicability of this research more broadly for migrant-receiving democracies, especially in other parts of the developing world.

Adaptive Institutions and Networked Governance

Chapter 3 lays out the main argument of the book, that in the context of the invisibility bargain, a democratic government has a political incentive to prioritize the interests of citizens over migrants (even when formal institutions promise protections), and thus may be an inadequate guarantor of security in migrant-receiving areas. The resulting gaps in formal state protections can increase migrant vulnerability and escalate conflict between migrants and citizens. Governance networks that connect international organizations, nonstate actors and the state can emerge to fill these gaps, adapting innovative forms of governance that complement, substitute, or compete with state authority and security provision. More diverse and dense networks provide a greater number of potential access points through which migrants might gain the resources and protections they need to thrive in the host community. The chapter provides a theoretical framework for understanding how governance networks contribute to host-migrant human security.

Valued Contribution and Social Invisibility in Ecuador

Chapter 6 illustrates the empirical application of the social invisibility component of the invisibility bargain in Ecuador, showing how race, gender, and other markers of difference structure host society expectations of who belongs in the “community of value.” Using an intersectional lens, it teases apart the overlapping structures of exclusion that affect indigenous and Afro-Colombians, other Colombian migrants, and Afro-Ecuadorians quite differently in their access to human security and social integration in Ecuador. The chapter highlights accent as the primary marker of difference that heightens the social visibility of Colombian migrants, and it traces the coping mechanisms—including minimizing difference, reducing social distance, and informal negotiation through intermediaries, that migrants use to avoid the social sanctions of backlash under the invisibility bargain.

Evolution of the Central Actors in the Governance Network

Chapter 5 takes a closer look at three of the most important sets of actors involved at a national level in defining the agenda for migrant integration in Ecuador: the Ecuadorian state (especially the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Plan Ecuador), the United Nations system (especially UNHCR and UNDP) in Ecuador, and the Catholic Church. By tracing the institutional development and interaction of these three sets of organizations, the chapter seeks to understand how the differing political incentives and institutional missions and structures of each component of the migration governance network have impeded or promoted human security and peacebuilding. The chapter identifies trust, mission, capacity, and transnational linkages as key factors influencing outcomes. Recognizing the importance of change over time, the chapter traces three distinct phases within the time frame of 2000–2017: Absence, Coordination, and Regression.

Introduction

The introductory chapter previews the main argument and lays out the scope of the book, defines several of the key concepts that will be used throughout the book (including justifying the usage of the term “migrant” and making explicit the interlinking relationship between human security and peace), provides a brief historical context of the case study of Colombian forced migrants in Ecuador, and presents a rationale for the significance of the book. It also previews the remaining chapters and the key points made in them in order to sketch the progression of the core argument that is developed throughout the book.

Understanding the Invisibility Bargain

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of the invisibility bargain in order to explain how the informal strategies chosen by migrants to resolve conflicts, participate politically, and gain access to resources respond to the set of unwritten expectations within the host society that govern social relations between migrants and citizens and establish the “rules” by which the host population will tolerate or accept the physical presence of migrants in the country. It traces how the perception of migrants’ valued contribution, combined with their social and political invisibility, is often the price of the host population’s acceptance of their physical presence in the country, and argues that violation of these expectations may lead to social sanctions and a hostile backlash against migrants by the host population. The invisibility bargain lays important conceptual groundwork for the main argument of the book.