Addendum

to the analytical review

«Migration and indigenous peoples»

 

Prepared for the 2019 Study of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the theme «Indigenous peoples, migration and borders».

 

Proposal No.1

 

Relationship between the theme and proposal

Problems with proper access to health care and education for indigenous persons with disabilities are the parts of legal factor — risk factor for forced migration of indigenous peoples described in Analytical review.

 

The author of a proposal — Olga Montúfar (Mexico).

Proposal: «include migration for reason of disability because the States do not ensure rights to quality medical care, education».

Comments:

— «some indigenous families are forced to migrate because they face the challenge of being migrants in their own country where we are subjected to forced assimilation»

(note: in Central and Latin America assimilation often means colonization).

— «to ensure medical care for persons who were disabled during trip on the Beast».

Olga Montúfar proposed to consider the following materials:

— Study The situation of indigenous children with disabilities, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) 2017;

-Expert Group Meeting on indigenous persons with disabilities, 7-8 July 2016.

My conclusion

There is no such a formal reason of migration as disability.

I suggest to include the proposal as one of the form of unsustainable legal status of indigenous peoples.

Really many states are not able to provide the proper access to health care and education. It can cause migration to look for better life.

 

Sources of information

1.) Recommended materials

-Study The situation of indigenous children with disabilities, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) 2017

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/603837/EXPO_STU(2017)603837_EN.pd

— Expert Group Meeting on indigenous persons with disabilities, 7-8 July 2016

https://aday4all.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/expert-meeting-ipwd_final-report_doc-definitivo.pdf

2.)The Better Life Index

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org

3.) Central American migration

https://movimientomigrantemesoamericano.org/2016/07/13/central-american-migration/

4.) Aboard ‘the beast’: migrants’ daring train ride through Mexico

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2017/dec/13/mexico-central-american-migrants-la-bestia-pictures

5.) Migration processes in Mexico and Central America: from regional specifics to global trends (in russian)

http://svom.info/entry/687-migracionnye-processy-v-meksike-i-stranah-centraln

 

Brief review of Recommended materials

 

Study The situation of indigenous children with disabilities

Right to education

According to estimates from UNICEF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), approximately 90 % of children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school. Although data on access to education among ICwD are scarce, it has been consistently reported that these children receive limited access to education and that in many cases they have no access at all. Low school enrolment figures among indigenous girls and boys with disabilities depends on the type and degree of disability, remoteness of school facilities, patterns of discrimination and cultural stigma and the economic situation of the family.

Poverty and exclusion

There is a vicious circle concerning poverty and disability. Both conditions interact endogenously: disability leads to poverty but, even more importantly, poverty aggravates disability (Yeo and Moore, 2003). Disability may generate poverty both directly and indirectly—some of the most common ways are through attitudinal, environmental and institutional discrimination. Persons with disabilities usually attain lower levels of formal education, if any, and therefore their opportunities to get a job and a decent salary are reduced. Furthermore, in many developing countries, the cost of living for a person with a disability in order to enjoy most of their rights is relatively high.

Remoteness

In all censuses and reports reviewed in this study, the prevalence of disability is consistently higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In fact, remoteness may well aggravate the lack of access to proper intercultural education, healthcare, social services and justice, which in turn will worsen the opportunities of habilitation and rehabilitation within the indigenous community.

 

Expert Group Meeting on indigenous persons with disabilities, 7-8 July 201

Main challenges:

-knowledge gap at grassroots level;

-risk of cultural and social assimilation in certain models of inclusion, particularly in States’ approaches to service delivery;

-diverse social perceptions of disability among different indigenous communities;

-situation of indigenous women and girls with disabilities;

-there is a lack of access to services and support for indigenous persons with disabilities, including in the areas of justice, education, health and political participation;

-insufficient statistical information on indigenous persons with disabilities and the need to invest in disaggregated data.

Inclusion versus assimilation

There is a need for a better integration of indigenous persons with disabilities in society, which is respectful of the cultural background of indigenous peoples. Often, legislation and policies designed to include persons with disabilities in mainstream society leads to cultural assimilation when applied to indigenous persons with disabilities, threatening their languages, ways of life and identities.

Summary: Experts noted the insufficient availability of services for indigenous persons with disabilities in their communities, as well as accessible information regarding existing disability-specific services. As States often centralize support services in larger urban centers, to access them indigenous persons with disabilities must relocate to those areas, and become disconnected from their communities. Experts discussed how to provide access to indigenous persons with disabilities within the existing services, without exposing them to assimilation and cultural alienation. There is a parallel between this discussion and the debate on “integration vs. inclusion” in the disability context, whereas assimilation overlapped with the integrationist approach.

Participants agreed that further discussion is required on service implementation, to define how to design specific services from an indigenous perspective, and which mainstream services they can benefit from without risking assimilation. Moreover, they discussed what to do in countries where indigenous peoples are not recognized.

Key issues raised in the discussions:

In the Latin American context, “assimilation” means colonization. Preventing assimilation is a collective right that applies to the community as a whole, regardless of disability.

 

Brief review of issue

 

Problems with proper access to health care and education can cause migration.

Let us consider data of the Better Life Index that allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life

 

Health

At 75 years life expectancy, Mexico falls five years below the OECD average of 80 years, and shows one of the lowest rankings in the OECD. Higher life expectancy is generally associated with higher health care spending per person, although many other factors have an impact on life expectancy (such as living standards, lifestyles, education and environmental factors).

When asked «How is your health in general?» 66% of people in Mexico reported to be in good health, less than the OECD average of 69%. Despite the subjective nature of this question, answers have been found to be a good predictor of people’s future health care use. Gender, age and social status may affect answers to this question.

Mexico introduced public health insurance (Seguro Popular) in 2002, which has contributed to universal financial risk protection. However, effective coverage is low for chronic diseases, with only 26% of adult men and 30% of adult women having access to preventive care.

Education

Mexicans can expect to go through 14.8 years of education between the ages of 5 and 39, much less than the OECD average of 17 years and the lowest level in the OECD.

Graduating from upper secondary education has become increasingly important in all countries, as the skills needed in the labour market are becoming more knowledge-based. High-school graduation rates therefore provide a good indication of whether a country is preparing its students to meet the minimum requirements of the job market. In Mexico, 37% of adults aged 25-64 have completed upper secondary education, much lower than the OECD average of 74% and the lowest rate among OECD countries.

The average student in Mexico scored 416 in reading literacy, maths and science, far below the OECD average of 486, and the lowest rate in the OECD.

 

As You see indicators are below the average.

Compare them with indicators of main country of destination — USA.

 

Health

While life expectancy in the United States used to be 1.5 year above the OECD average in 1960, it is now, at almost 79 years, one year below the average of 80 years.

When asked «How is your health in general?» 88% of people in the United States reported to be in good health, much more than the OECD average of 69% and one of the highest scores across the OECD.

Education

People in the United States can expect to go through 17.1 years of education between the ages of 5 and 39, very similar to the OECD average of 17 years.

In the United States, 90% of adults aged 25-64 have completed upper secondary education, much higher than the OECD average of 74%.

The average student in the United States scored 488 in reading literacy, maths and sciences, above than the OECD average of 486.

 

So we can understand why mexicans choose USA as country of destination.

Although the majority of migrants from Mexico and Central America want to get into the United States, such migration can have a number of negative points.

 

Migration was previously regarded as a natural process that does not pose a threat to security of countries and peoples. However, at present it has become a consequence of the lack of a decent life in different countries.

Examples of contradictory processes are Mexico and Central America where intensification of migration has happened in the last 30-35 years.

In Mexico, socio-economic causes of migration have always prevailed. And in the Central American countries, migration was caused by wars and violance.

The economic reasons for migration are associated with neoliberal model that focuses on opening up of national economies. Globalization has established division of labor in which developed countries got the knowledge economy with its creative nature of labor and information technologies, and the developing countries got the real economy designed to ensure development of developed countries.

As a result of the reforms of the late 20th century, economic systems in countries of Central America are unable to create new jobs in sufficient quantity. Another reasons for migration are political and other corruption, predominance of criminality.

 Consequences of such migration are mostly negative. First of all, because of its illegal nature that makes migrants vulnerable not only from the point of view of illegal stay in the host country, but also to criminal gangs, as well as to police and bureaucratic arbitrariness.

Routes to USA are very dangerous. One of them is La Bestia – the freight train on which Central American men, women and children band together as a caravan to make the brutal 20-day journey through Mexico. They can travel without having to pay. But they are exposed to acute risks of violence. Some say they are willing to take the risk because staying in their country undoubtedly means death. Some migrants will start a living in México, while a few others will seek asylum in the U.S.

Migratory flows have long been taken under control by criminal structures, including Mexican drug cartels and Central American gangs (maras). According to the Mesoamerican migration movement, about 20 thousand migrants are abducted annually in Mexico, from 72 thousand to 120 thousand migrants were missing from 2006 to 2016, and in Mexico 174 secret mass graves were discovered.

In the U.S. migrants experience problems with adaptation and are part of informal institutions and migrant networks, leading to social exclusion, enclavization and ghettoisation.

Migration in Central America leads to a number of negative consequences:

-economic: a decline in the economic growth, deprivation of large areas, destruction of local industries

-public: degradation of human capital and family institution, disintegration of families and gap between generations.

Migration splits society and increases social inequality. Those who have the ability and strength leave; the rest are plunged into poverty. Migrants want to fit into a new environment at the expense of their own traditions. Without becoming a part of foreign country, they become strangers in their own country (in case of deportation or voluntary return). After deportation they often end up in criminal gangs.

Migration in Central America is one of the factors eroding “citizenship,” as belonging to the same political community. This becomes a factor in destruction of the states.

The Costa Rican sociologist, migration specialist Abelardo Morales Gamboa writes that the migration processes in Central America pose the problem of justice and affiliation: in the first case, according to the concept of citizenship, a significant part of the individuals whose existence is connected with migration is deprived of it. In the second, migration means for them the loss of status of full member of a certain territorial community.

As a result, a person stops living a full-fledged life with his family, have not possibility of realizing his personal potential, and is only engaged in physical survival.

 

Recommendations

 

People in Mexico and Central American countries, especially indigenous persons with disabilities, have problems with proper access to health care and education that can cause migration and is one of the form of unsustainable legal status of indigenous peoples.

These problems are the parts of legal factor — risk factor for forced migration of indigenous peoples described in Analytical review.

We need strengthening sustainable legal status of indigenous peoples in the context of implementing the rights to access to health care and education.

It would assist to address issues under consideration in Mexico and Central American countries.

For this purpose it is necessary to implement:

-Recommendations provided in Analytical review

-Recommendations provided in Recommended materials.

 

In particular, it can be recommended for indigenous organizations and state bodies of Mexico and Central American countries to participate in implementing the following Recommendations

— provided in Study The situation of indigenous children with disabilities:

-Improving data collection;

-Improving legal frameworks;

-Targeted actions;

— provided in conclusions of Expert Group Meeting on indigenous persons with disabilities

— to develop a General Comment on indigenous persons with disabilities, to guide States on how to implement the CRPD among indigenous communities (e.g., personal assistance services in the community that prevent assimilation or situations of forced migration);

-include the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous persons with disabilities and their access to services in National Action Plans;

-adopt a System-wide Wide Action Plan that is inclusive of persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples to enhance coordination among UN agencies;

-bridge the information gap on indigenous persons with disabilities, by adapting the set of questions of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to disaggregate data on indigenous persons with disabilities at national level;

-strengthen the capacity of organizations of indigenous persons with disabilities and the Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Global Network, with the support from States, donor and international cooperation partners;

-raise the awareness of the media on the issue of indigenous persons with disabilities.

Given the significance of La Bestia security problem, it is necessary to ensure medical care for persons who were disabled during trip on the Beastia, maintain statistics and improving railway safety.