Patrick Springer joined the Inter-American Dialogue in 2022 as a program assistant for Think Tank Haiti. Since then, Springer has joined the Migration, Remittances, and Development program as a program associate. Springer graduated from American University with a master’s degree in US Foreign Policy and National Security and from UMass Boston with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a minor in Spanish. Prior to the Dialogue, Springer interned at the Organization of American States, Global Americans, and several local government offices in Pennsylvania. Springer has studied abroad in Canada, Costa Rica, and Cuba, and speaks Spanish and French.
On April 9, 2024, the Inter-American Dialogue released the report “State Collapse and the Protection of Remittance Payments.” The report, produced by Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development program, and Patrick Springer, program associate, examines the extent to which the current crisis in Haiti can be characterized as state failure. The report examines state failure in Haiti, its effects on the daily lives of Haitians, the Haitian economy, and how it is impacting remittance systems in the country and concludes with a strategy for ensuring successful and safe remittance transfers to the Caribbean nation.
On February 16, 2024, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Migration, Remittances, and Development program invited representatives from across the remittance industry to discuss the potential for developments in the industry and to discuss their outlook for 2024.
On March 4, 2024, the Inter-American Dialogue released the report “Transaction Costs and Money Transfer Operators – A Review of Costs by MTO Receiving Countries.”
The Andean migrant population in the US is remitting 50% of all flows to their homelands in the Andes, over US$10 billion in 2022 from the US and US$11 billion in 2023. Within this context, the following briefing offers a characterization of migration from the Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
This piece offers a look at the current migration trends and points to large differences that characterize this situation as a crisis: the scale, composition, nature, and management of migration is outside conventional or historical patterns. Aspects of this unprecedented migration pattern are not within the control of government authorities and policy makers. The recent migration wave to the US border has been referred to as a crisis. Media references point to the drama of people arriving and passing through the Darien, Central America, and Mexico to characterize the problem. Others have pointed out the increasing arrivals into US cities in numbers that are hard to manage by local communities.
