Creating Ibero-American citizenship from social security

Migration is one of the elements that characterize the Ibero-American region, first in the global arena in number of inter- and intra-regional migrants, with almost 40 million people emigrating from their countries of origin.

These are people who contribute with their work to the growth of the countries that receive them, but who may be left out of the social security systems for not meeting the minimum criteria to access benefits.

This can exacerbate situations of poverty, especially in old age, and encourage labor informality.

To help alleviate this situation, and with the encouragement of the Ibero-American Social Security Organization (OISS), the Ibero-American Multilateral Agreement on Social Security has been in force since 2011, a pioneering agreement that allows contributions to social security systems to be added in various countries to access benefits.

This is a unique success story, since it is applied in countries where there is no prior political union, and without the need to modify their legislation or make economic transfers between States.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay are the twelve countries -to which Colombia will soon join- in which the Multilateral Agreement is already a reality that it has benefited almost one hundred thousand migrants from the region and their families in their access to retirement, disability or death pensions.

This instrument, which could be considered the first of the Ibero-American heritage, is perhaps the best example of what Ibero-American cooperation can achieve, improving the well-being of the population and generating Ibero-American citizenship.

A cooperation that has its greatest exponent in the Ibero-American summits and that, to be "fair and sustainable", as it has been set as an objective in the Dominican Republic, must be inclusive with migrants and with their exercise of the human right to social security .

Gina Magnolia Riaño Barón,

is Secretary General of the Ibero-American Social Security Organization (OISS)

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