Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

Latin American Regional Integration (Isabella Alcañiz and Marcela Cerrutti)

Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:30pm

Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility)

Co-sponsored by the Penn Latin American and Latino Studies Program.

We encourage all attendees to read the papers submitted by this month's presenters:

Isabella Alcañiz (University of Maryland / Dept. of Government and Politics): Debt, Democracy, and Post-Neoliberalism: 30 Years of Regional Integration in Latin America (PDF)
Marcela Cerrutti (CONICET, Argentina): "MERCOSUR and Regional Migration: A Human Rights Approach"

Alcañiz Excerpt: "AGAIN AND AGAIN, LATIN AMERICANS HAVE RESPONDED to common debt crises by investing in regionalization. Interestingly, these investments tend to be low cost, and thus focus more on “external agendas” of new institutions than on the “internal agendas” of old institutions. Low cost investments translate into low cost signals to international market actors. This rationale, I claim, explains in part why the Mercosur appears to have been abandoned by its larger members. It should be said, however, that the incentives to deepen regional integration vary cross-nationally and differ greatly for the smaller economies of the Mercosur." ISABELLA ALCAÑIZ is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland.

Cerrutti Excerpt: "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION has been extensively studied in the case of Europe and North America, although no extensive research has been carried out in other countries. Interesting developments are taking place in South America that could contribute to the debate about immigrant rights, immigration policies, and citizenship. One is the ongoing process of regional integration, the so-called MERCOSUR, which opens up a series of questions and challenges regarding the link between citizenship and nationality, particularly because the agreements include commitments to foster regional citizenship that transcends the boundaries of nation states. MERCOSUR developments, as well as significant ongoing changes that are taking place in individual countries regarding the rights of migrants, may serve as a contrasting example to increasingly restrictive paradigms of migratory governance." MARCELA CERRUTTI is an adjunct member of the National Commission of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and a full-time researcher for the Population Studies Center (CENEP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.