THE US, SPAIN, AND CANADA WILL PARTNER TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
The United States, Spain, and Canada plan to work together to engage more with Latin America. The partnership aims to promote safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration while creating economic and social opportunities. The three countries will expand regular labour migration opportunities, strengthen national governments' ability to recruit, vet, and support workers, increase awareness of workers' rights, and bring more international attention to the region. Their cooperation is based on a shared dedication to the region’s people, a shared interest in addressing labour shortages in participating countries, a shared commitment to worker empowerment, and a shared awareness of the need to manage irregular migration.
This announcement also reinforces our mutual interest in the region, underscoring the common hemispheric understanding, approach, and commitments in the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and the United States “Call to Action” for Central America. As part of this joint commitment, the United States, Spain, and Canada have outlined the goals below.
Canada:
In 2022, Canada welcomed more than 50,000 workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean in the agriculture sector alone. While the agriculture sector makes up a significant portion of temporary foreign workers from this region, labour is sought across various sectors, with trends in private-sector employer demand suggesting increased future growth. Canada’s temporary labour pathways are demand-driven, with certain employers directly contacting regional stakeholders to meet labour market needs.
As part of its joint commitment, Canada will leverage its existing temporary foreign worker pathways and economic programs, such as the Agri-Food Pilot, to offer safe, regular pathways as an alternative to irregular migration.
In addition, Canada will explore further humanitarian pathways to welcome more displaced persons from the Americas to be employed in Canada. This includes the recently expanded Economic Mobility Pathway Pilot, which provides an additional pathway for skilled refugees and other displaced people to immigrate to Canada through economic pathways.
The Government of Canada commits to growing labour mobility from the region, mainly through promotion and communication activities that link Canadian employers with new regional stakeholders, including national labour ministries. This may be particularly attractive to our small/medium-sized and rural business owners in need of labour but who may not have access to larger-scale recruitment pathways.
Canada will increase capacity-building efforts in the region to address the root causes of irregular migration and promote regular pathways for labour mobility, including efforts that focus on supporting socio-economic integration and ethical recruitment of temporary foreign workers.
Canada will share information on its policies and best practices as agreed at the North American Leaders’ Summit.
Spain:
Spain has developed different regular migration pathways, based on its strong links with Latin
As a part of this effort, Spain has signed migration-related agreements with the Dominican Republic (2001), Ecuador (2001), Colombia (2001), Honduras (2021), and Guatemala (2023). These bilateral agreements provide the necessary legal basis for Spain and the countries of origin to jointly work on regular migration. Under the framework of these agreements, Spain has launched several circular migration programs. In 2023, around 2,000 seasonal workers will come to Spain through these programs.
In addition to these bilateral agreements, Spain has developed a program for high-skilled workers, allowing 3,700 people from Colombia and Central America to arrive in Spain in 2022.
Between 2019 and 2022, Spain received more than 300,000 asylum applications from Latin America, plus 35,000 in the first quarter of 2023.
As part of its joint commitment to promoting legal migration, Spain will increase the number of persons coming from Latin America over the next three years through pathways linked to labour market needs, enhancing existing operational capacities.
With this objective, Spain is committed to reinforcing the existing regular pathways, expanding its circular migration program and has just enacted a new complementary pathway, relying on corporate sponsors, for persons needing international protection with skills matching domestic labour demand shortages.
The United States:
In FY 2022, the United States issued 15,102 H-2B (non-agricultural) visas, and 3,923 H-2A (agricultural) visas to workers from northern Central America, doubling issuances for FY 2021.
The United States has reserved thousands of H-2B visas for nationals of northern Central America in fiscal years 2021 to 2023 and provided extensive support to the governments of northern Central America countries in identifying and vetting potential workers and facilitating their recruitment by U.S. employers while putting in place stronger worker protections.
As part of its joint commitment, the United States will:
Seek a 25 percent increase in H-2 visa issuance from northern Central America by issuing more than 25,000 H-2 visas from this region in FY 2023 and endeavour to increase FY23 numbers by at least 10 percent in FY24 (contingent upon employer demand).
Use up to $65 million to operationalize a pilot grant program for agricultural employers to address labour instability and labour shortages by expanding the pool of H-2A workers from northern Central America while improving working conditions for both U.S. and H-2A farmworkers..
The United States will also provide technical and administrative support to interested destination countries and relevant ministries in partner-sending countries to:
Strengthen the ministries’ overall capacity, including expanding lawful channels to additional destination countries;
Protect the rights of migrant workers; and
Make labour migration opportunities more publicly visible, offering hope that alternatives to irregular movement exist.
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