Mexico City, Mexico — The Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE), Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, participated in the launch of TENT Mexico operations to generate business coalitions in favor of refugees and migrants.
During the event, Foreign Minister Bárcena Ibarra spoke about the importance of the effective and empathetic integration of refugees and migrants into society.
“Work is the master key to combat inequality and poverty and we must include them all in society, but most importantly work (…) I believe that with this alliance of government, society, employers and workers we can achieve it,” she said.
Companies are agents of change, so integrating refugees and migrants into the workforce is not an act of charity, it is an act of community commitment, global solidarity and of social responsibility.
“Mexico is developing high-impact projects such as the Maya Train, such as the Transisthmian Corridor, such as the border which opens opportunities but certainly, as Amy Pope says, if the private sector does not play in this productive, commercial integration, it is impossible to generate employment,” she said.
Marath Baruch Bolaños López, the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), highlighted that the immigration policy of the Government of Mexico is established on the basis of full respect for human rights.
Likewise, she considered that human mobility and labor migration have various drivers such as the lack of opportunities in the countries of origin and, therefore, through the National Employment Service, a labor inclusion policy is promoted where attention is prioritized to those who face greater barriers to accessing employment, including the migrant population looking for work in Mexico.
To achieve this, there are 166 offices throughout the country and more than 2,500 labor counselors.
“Refugees and migrants and in general the population in a context of mobility, prove to be a very important source of talent for the private sector in Mexico to meet the personnel needs that are not covered in the country.
“In that sense, the talent of the migrant population is complementary to that of Mexicans and, under no circumstances, can we speak of displacement of Mexicans,” Bolaños López emphasized.
Soon the STPS will launch the labor mobility microsite “Mexico employs you”, where the population looking for work will be able to register their work profile and access formal jobs.
There the commitment of all those present will be the one who joins in promoting their available vacancies. This site joins the Employment Portal, the Job Board and the Job Fairs so that the migrant and refugee population can attend the events and access a job according to their work profile, the secretary explained.
TENT Partnership for Refugees is a global alliance of companies whose goal is to economically integrate refugees. The alliance is made up of more than 350 large companies from various sectors and has a presence in Germany, Canada, Colombia, Spain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and, now, in Mexico.
At the start of TENT Mexico, companies from sectors such as technology, health, e-commerce and retail, logistics, hotels and food joined forces to generate 10,000 jobs in the coming years for migrants and refugees.
