Adapting Community Mediation for Colombian Forced Migrants in Ecuador

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21184
• Author: David Sulewski,Jeffrey Pugh,Julie Moreno
• Date: 01 June 2017
• Published date: 01 June 2017

C R Q, vol. 34, no. 4, Summer 2017 409

© 2016 Association for Confl ict Resolution and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21184

Adapting Community Mediation for Colombian

Forced Migrants in Ecuador

Jeffre y Pugh

David Sulewski

Julie Moreno

 is article addresses the challenges of using mediation in confl icts

involving immigrants and refugees by examining the case of Colom-

bian migrants in Ecuador. It proposes ways to adapt the community

mediation model to better serve migrants in confl ict, enhancing media-

tors’ awareness and capacity to navigate cross-cultural diff erences, power

imbalances, distrust of state institutions, and other common challenges.

Trust, access, form, and capacity of the mediation and the mediator are

key dimensions of host-migrant confl ict resolution.  e article suggests

that using nonstate confl ict resolution organizations and emphasizing

relationships more than technical neutrality can improve the eff ective-

ness of mediation involving migrants.

I nternational migration has been a key factor accompanying the global-

ization of the past half-century. As cheaper and faster transportation

and communication technologies have made it logistically easier to cross

borders, more people have begun to look for economic opportunities or

fl ee violent threats in their own countries. However, this displacement of

people into new contexts has led to diff erent cultural assumptions, shifting

social hierarchies, and changes in the political economy, all of which can

escalate confl ict between migrants and their host communities.  e state

is not necessarily a neutral actor in this confl ict, and it often has a politi-

cal incentive to favor citizens (who vote) and scapegoat migrants (who

often do not), blaming them for social problems. Formal state institutions

charged with protection and dispute resolution, such as the courts and

410 P, S, M

C R Q • DOI: 10.1002/crq

the police, may be viewed with such suspicion by migrants that their abil-

ity to intervene successfully and deescalate confl icts between migrants and

citizens is diminished. As such, community mediation and the nonstate

organizations that engage in this process represent a potentially important

avenue for building the capacity to handle community confl icts peacefully

and constructively in the future.

In this article, we examine host-migrant social confl icts, conceptual-

ize the institutional and social processes that shape their resolution, and

propose a concrete framework for understanding the factors that infl uence

the potential eff ectiveness of mediation in deescalating and managing these

confl icts. We argue that bicultural mediators who can fl exibly adapt the tra-

ditional mediation model to accommodate cultural diff erences are critical

to the success of a host-migrant peacemaking intervention. Nonstate orga-

nizations have important comparative advantages over the state in trust,

access, form, and capacity to intervene in host-migrant confl icts. Orga-

nizations that coordinate eff ectively with other state and nonstate actors

in a governance network are best positioned to foster sustainable peace in

migrant-receiving communities. By analyzing in depth the case of Colom-

bian forced migrants in Ecuador, we test the empirical plausibility of this

argument and identify key challenges and lessons that might be useful for

mediators who are asked to intervene in host-migrant confl icts elsewhere.

Importance of Nonstate Institutions for Refugees and Migrants

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a critical role in serving

the needs of migrants and refugees, who are often marginalized within

their host communities or lack the types of social networks and resources

to which citizens may have greater access. Given their private, nonprofi t

nature, their fl exibility of scope, resource base, infl uence, and functional

orientation, nonstate institutions have often been more eff ective than states

when it comes to providing assistance and support for the most vulnerable

populations, especially refugees and other migrants (Collingwood 2006 ).

According to Goodwin-Gill ( 2001 ), the human rights dimensions

of cross-border migration have been increasingly downplayed. Although

responsibility to victims of forced displacement falls to the state, NGOs

have played a complementary role in situations where the state is unable or

unwilling to safeguard the rights of vulnerable populations. Unfortunately,

governments have often failed to muster the political will to fulfi ll their