Episode 22: Latin America's migration mega-trends, with Felipe Muñoz from the Inter-American Development bank

The Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello, you're listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host, Loksan Harley. Today, we've got Felipe Muñoz, Chief of the Migration Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with us to talk about Latin America's migration mega-trends.

A bit about Felipe. He's been in his current position leading IDB's migration practice since August 2020. Before that, for more than two years, he was advisor to the President of Colombia on the country's comprehensive response to migration from Venezuela, during which time he was in charge of coordinating government responses to the migration flows at the national and regional levels. Previously, Felipe was senior counselor to the IDB Board of Executive Directors. His vast experience in Colombia’s public sector includes serving as Private Security Superintendent, Director of the National Intelligence Agency, as well as adviser to Bogota’s Mayor and the Minister of Finance, among other senior roles.

I was really excited to get Felipe on the show today. He's gained some fantastic insights into migration and development issues, having both worked at the ground level, advising on his country's response to some of the highest levels of forced displacement seen worldwide, as well as at the international level as a pioneer of a truly cross-cutting approach to integrating migration into different areas of the IDB's development support to the region. As alluded to, Felipe starts by giving us his take on the big Latin American migration issues of today, including the far-reaching effects of the Venezuelan crisis, Central America's big migration trends, and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We then talk in-depth about IDB's response to these issues, such as how it attaches migration support to its funding in other development sectors, as well as how Felipe and his team are going about placing migration at the centre of the IDB's development work.

I hope you enjoyed listening to this as much as I enjoyed recording it and if you're listening on Apple iTunes, we'd be grateful if you could leave a review to tell us what you think. Thank you so much for tuning in and without further ado, here's our interview.

Useful links

• IDB's migration website
• Episode 8 on Caribbean migration
• Episode 10 on mainstreaming migration
• MPI report on Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19
• MMC's study about the impact of COVID-19 on refugees and migrants
• BetterTogether Challenge