Characteristics and challenges of migration for social security in the Latin American region

Abstract

The Latin American region is considered an area with the highest migration rate in the world, with an internal migrant population estimated in more than 25 million. This region has also another important characte-ristic in relation to social security coverage: a very high level of informality: about 50% of the active population. The combination of these two factors has created a lack of protection for certain categories of workers. Never-theless, recent developments could help to solve this exclusion, which have been adopted in two levels. In a regional level, the multilateral iberoameri-can agreement on social security has created a mechanism of coordination of social security system. In a national level, recent legislation that is appli-cable not only to national. However, even with these important develop-ments migrant and informal workers still excluded of protection. How the Latin-American social security system can extend coverage for these popu-lations? Traditional mechanism based on social insurance and contribution has shown a limited effect in the region. Non-contributory mechanism may be used as a solution for informal workers. However, the question of the coverage for migrants still unsolved for informal migrant workers.