Migrants in the crosshairs: structural discrimination in Argentina?

Abstract

Migrants have been constantly victims of discrimination, especially in these times. An example of these is the regressive legislation on migrants’ rights adopted by Argentina, criminalizing them for the mere fact of being a migrant. However, this is not a new phenomenon in Argentina, it has been brewing for decades until it became written in a Necessity and Urgency Decree of dubious constitutionality and conventionality, as well as a series of public policies that put migrants in the crosshairs,
as the «scapegoat» that must be expelled. From a human rights perspective, it could be affirmed that there are currently policies of persecution against migrants with active attitudes of the State, including the enactment of discriminatory regulations. In this sense, the article will focus on defining what is the meaning, from the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights perspective, of structural discrimination
and will analyzing Argentinean public policies related to migration, under the prism of that type of discrimination, in order to identify if we can affirm that there is structural discrimination against migrants in Argentina.