Visibilizing the Invisible: Advances, Challenges, and Recommendations to Guarantee the Legal Identification, Nationality, and Name of Children on the Move in the Americas
Cover Photo: Proyecto Nacionalidad, Clínica Jurídica de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado de Chile
The lack of identification documents is a situation that affects 850 million people worldwide. Although the lack of legal identification is a phenomenon that affects people regardless of age, it often disproportionately impacts children, especially during early childhood. As a result, children on the move often face multiple human rights violations, which may include the arbitrary denial of nationality and statelessness, human trafficking, forced recruitment, child labor, risk of child marriage, as well as the refusal to access economic, social and cultural rights, such as health and education.
The lack of registration of a person's birth certificate means that, throughout one's life, one has no documentation to prove one's identity, including one's name, nationality, and parentage. Moreover, it creates the conditions for a person's statelessness, which occurs when a person is not considered a national by any state according to its legislation. In other words, the person becomes legally invisible.
This report analyzes (1) the advances and challenges of children's rights to legal identification in mixed migration movements in the Americas, (2) the content and scope of the right to identification, (3) the importance of birth registration to guarantee the rights to legal identification, nationality, and name, (4) some good practices in the Americas, and (5) the conclusions and main recommendations for policymakers in the Americas.
Migration from Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States has grown steadily over the past forty years. In addition to leaving their countries amidst political and economic hardship, the vast majority of these migrants face additional challenges to their legal status. One way to look for solutions is to consider a comprehensive approach to migration through recruitment, retention, return, relief and reform.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America attempting to enter the United States in the past few years. This increase is also seen among adults, though to a lesser degree. As the United States, Mexico, and Central American countries struggle to address this crisis, debates have raged surrounding the humanitarian, legal, and political implications of any possible solution to this complex and troubling issue. This memo aims to inform the current debate by integrating data on issues triggering this outflow while also introducing the perspectives of the people and communities they affect. Specifically, it draws on data from 900 municipalities to analyze migrant hometowns in relation to human development,violence, and education.In addition, it presents the results of a nationwide survey in El Salvador and a survey of Central American migrants residing in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
