Structure and management of Andean migrant associations

6.3.1 Structure

All twelve associations have statutes which guide their functioning and action and are structured and managed by an elected board and a General Assembly. Some associations (Asociación Boliviana de Ginebra, Colombia Vive, Asociación Bolivia 9, Asociación Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza) have added working groups or subcommittees to support them in their work. Most of the associations have three board members: president, secretary and treasurer, however some (Colombia Vive, Asociación Bolivia 9, Asociación Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza) have other roles such as vice-president, public relations coordinator and/or communications coordinator. This type of structure and management follows the instruction provided by the Swiss Civil Code, article 60 but more importantly, the associative know-how that spreads among people active in the associative environment.

Most of the associations have had periods of increased activity, and some of inactivity.

This is part of the changing dynamic associations confront over time; as discussed in Chapter 1, objectives and their specificity can evolve, as can the formality of the associations structure and processes.

Box 2. Andean migrant associations’ objectives by type of association

Cultural association (an example)

“To promote Ecuadorian culture and develop social and cultural activities in order to present the realities of the Ecuadorian people”.

Asociacion de Ecuatorianos y Amigos del Ecuador en Lausanne – AEYAEL Scientific and academic association (an example)

“To promote, support and disseminate all kinds of activities related to the scientific, technological and academic development of Colombia, as well as promoting the exchange and dissemination of knowledge among our members”.

Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza – ACIS Awareness raising association (an example)

“To inform and guide Latin American migrant women in the process of adaptation and integration in the Swiss society”.

Warmi – Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines Solidarity association (an example)

“To work for the interests of Latin Americans in general and Bolivians in particular who reside in Switzerland”.

Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra – ABG Source: Survey and associations’ websites

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6.3.2 Members

Migrant associations are based on volunteering and Andean migrant associations are not an exception. All Andean association board members are volunteers wanting to contribute to the fulfilment of the association’s mission, and also looking for recognition and notoriety to benefit their own economic activities and professional careers, to compensate for professional deskilling, and/or mitigate political exclusion (Cattacin & Domenig, 2014).

Apart from the voluntary time offered to migrant associations, members also made available their economic, social, human and symbolic capitals. Regarding economic capital, for instance, some Andean association collected funds to support their countries of origin during recent natural disasters – see Box. 7.6 (Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra, Asociacion Colombia Vive, Asociacion de Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza, Association pour l’Integration des Equatorien a Geneve and Asociacion Cultural Peru²²⁵) Also, occasionally board members contributed financially from their own resources to carry out activities in Geneva or Vaud (Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra, Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza and Plataforme Suisse – Colombie²²⁶). In terms of social capital, many board and regular members offered their networks and connections in their countries of origin and in Switzerland. In many instances, bonding and bridging capital (see Chapter 1), came into play through family, friends or relevant contacts in civic organizations and authorities to support the implementation of activities in countries of origin (Voluntariado Ecuatoriano Residente en Suiza, Asociacion Colombia Vive and Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores²²⁷).

In Switzerland, new members or volunteers are often recruited by an older member, usually a family member or a friend (for all 12 associations), illustrating bonding capital. Andean associations also obtain rooms to carry out activities, funding, speakers for conference or manage to influence the discussion of topics of interest through members’ contacts with civic organizations or authorities, illustrating bridging capital (Asociation Boliviana de Ginebra, Asociacion Bolivia 9, Asociacion Colombia Vive, Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza, Plateforme Suisse Colombie, Warmi, Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines²²⁸). With regards to human capital, apart from the associations’ members education, training and skills acquired in countries of origin and in Switzerland (all associations), some members offer the know-how to create and manage associations and fundraise for the implementation of activities (Asociacion Bolivia 9, Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza,

225 Information was provided during interviews with Association pour l’Integration des Equatorien a Geneve and Asociacion Cultural Peru, through participant observation with Asociacion Colombia Vive, and Asociacion de Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza, and through website review with Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra,

226 Information was provided during the interview with Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra, and obtained through participant observation with Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza and Plataforme Suisse – Colombie

227 Information was provided during the interview with the former president and founder of the Voluntariado Ecuatoriano Residente en Suiza,and obtained through participant observation with Asociacion Colombia Vive and Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores.

228 Information was provided during interviews with Asociation Boliviana de Ginebra and Warmi, Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines and obtained through participant observation with Asociacion Bolivia 9, Asociacion Colombia Vive, Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza, Plateforme Suisse Colombie,

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Plateforme Suisse Colombie and Warmi- Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines²²⁹).

With regards to symbolic capital, some leaders of Andean associations have a well-known reputation for their associative activities in Geneva and Lausanne (Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra, Asociacion Bolivia 9, Asociations Colombia Vive and Plateforme Suisse – Colombie²³⁰).

It is important to highlight that the above capitals are not static but change over time based on changes in the composition of the migrant associations (board, committees, etc.), and on the context in which they function – in this case the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud.

With regards to the number of association members, it varies greatly, between 9 – 200 people, and most of them have supporters between 20-500 people, among whom there are people from the same migrant group, Latin American, Swiss and from other nationalities who participate to the associations’ activities. Counting members is challenging as some associations include people in their membership from their contact list or who participate in their events, while other associations only count people who are active in the implementation of activities and in the management of the association, and in the case of some associations, membership is counted based on yearly membership fees.

6.3.3 Leadership

Some Andean migrant associations have been able to strengthen their bridging social capital (see Chapter 1), through their board members or founders’ roles in local politics, consultative commissions, interinstitutional working groups and civil society networks. These associations leaders enjoy a degree of recognition by members of the associations they represent and others from the same migrant group which gives legitimacy to their action (Martinello, 2010²³¹). In local politics, the president of the Asociacion Colombia Vive, is a town counsellor in Lausanne – Vaud for the Socialist Party; one of the funding members of the Asociación de Ecuatorianos y Amigos del Ecuador en Lausanne, is a communal counsellor in Renens – Vaud for the Workers’

Party Vaud and the president of Warmi, was administrative counsellor in Veyrier – Geneva in 2015. For the consultative commissions, the president of Asociación de Ecuatorianos y Amigos del Ecuador en Lausanne, is the representative for Latin America in the Cantonal Consultative Chamber for Migrants in Vaud. From the interinstitutional working groups, a representative of the board of the Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra (ABG) participates each year at the annual meeting of migrant health and medicine of first resort with Swiss organizations, where ABG is the only association from Latin America; and finally, for the civil society network, the Asociacion Bolivia 9’s Secretary General is an active member and former president of Maison Kultura, collaborates with the Colectivo de apoyo a sin papeles (the support group for undocumented migrants), the Centre de Contact Suisse Immigrés (CCSI) (the Swiss-immigrant Contact Centre) and the Coordinator of the Association pour l’intégration des Equatoriens de Genève – AIEG, was active before in Maison Kultura and is currently in La Escuelita de Onex, a non-profit cultural association, born in 2013

229 Information was obtained through participant observation with Asociacion Bolivia 9, Asociacion Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza, Plateforme Suisse Colombie and Warmi- Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines

230 Information was obtained through participant observation.

231 Martiniello, “Ethnic Leadership, Ethnic Communities’ Political Powerlessness and the State in Belgium.”

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with the intention of creating a space for learning and transmitting language and culture to children whose parents are of Latin American origin and reside in the Canton of Geneva.

Women leadership

According to the literature, migrant associations are generally led by men (Vermeulen, 2006). However, in the case of Andean migrant associations in the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud, this premise does not hold; seven associations are led by women presidents (Asociación Bolivia 9, Asociación Boliviana de Ginebra, Asociación Colombia Vive, Asociación de Ecuatorianos y Amigos del Ecuador en Lausanne, Voluntariado Ecuatoriano Residente en Suiza, Warmi – Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines and Asociación Peruana de Académicos e Investigadores en Suiza), and of the remaining five, two of them were until recently led by women presidents (Asociación Colombiana de Investigadores en Suiza and Asociación Colombiana de Ginebra). The feminine component of the Andean migratory flow has an impact in the formation of associations, their structure and the activities they carry out. Clear examples are the Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra, Voluntariado Ecatoriano Residente en Suiza and Warmi– Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines, which have always been led by women, and in the cases of Asociacion Boliviana de Ginebra and Warmi– Soutien aux femmes Latinoamericaines, it has been the same women.

As mentioned earlier, the president of the Asociacion Colombia Vive is a town counsellor in Lausanne, Vaud for the Socialist Party; this position is a recognition of the work of the association and her other associative work. Similarly, the female president of Warmi, was administrative counsellor in Veyrier in 2015 and the female president of Asociación de Ecuatorianos y Amigos del Ecuador en Lausanne is the representative for Latin America in the Cantonal Consultative Chamber for Migrants in Vaud. Working in a migrant association provided these migrant women the opportunity to use their professional skills, and to achieve professional integration and recognition through political engagement (Cattacini & Domenig, 2014).

6.3.4 Funding

Some of the associations have a membership fee, ranging from 20 to 30 CHF annually, while the source of funding for other associations are the events that they provide to members, supporters and others, donations from individuals or the private sector. Few associations have received funding from the cantonal and communal levels. Most of the association are not aware of the funding application procedure, and many prefer not to adapt their objectives and activities to the areas where funding is available. This is the case with the Cantonal integration Programmes’ areas of action, which does not fund activities such as celebration of the culture of origin, associative fundraising parties, projects in the field of North-South cooperation or international solidarity or projects to promote human rights (BIE, 2017²³²). In addition, funds are conditioned to the principle of co-financing. In Geneva, this principle is very flexible – “own contributions from

232 BIE, “Financement d’un projet en lien avec l’intégration des étrangers.”

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the project organization can be quantified in terms of volunteer work and / or free provision of equipment and / or premises” (BIE, 2017, Pag. 2). However, in Vaud the funds granted may not exceed 70% of the overall cost of the project (BCI, 2018²³³).

For the twelve associations studied, annual budgets range from less than 2,000 CHF for four, between 2.000 and 5.000 CHF for two associations and more than 5.000 CHF for another two. Budget information was not available for the four remaining associations.

6.3.5 Premises

None of the associations have a physical space to meet. In general terms, Board meetings take place in the residence of one of the members and general assemblies and events in a rented or lent locations such as ‘la Maison des Associations’, University of Geneva and in the premises of Federation Kultura in Geneva; Benevolat Vaud, EPFL, University of Lausanne and Centre Social Protestant in Vaud; and socio cultural spaces in neighbourhoods, spaces provided by authorities and ‘maisons de quartier” in both Geneva and Vaud. The fact that locations are lent or rented at a

“associative” price by these associations shows the network and connections that leaders and other members of the associations have established with public authorities and other civil society actors, highlighting the importance of their bridging social capital (Putman, 2000).

6.3.6 Tension within and between migrant associations

Six of the twelve Andean associations have had internal tensions among members over the primary focus of the association, the type of activities or the leadership (see Chapter 1). For instance, in terms of the primary focus and activities of the associations, one association with an initial objective to support undocumented migrants shifted towards cultural activities, some tensions arise as some members wanted to focus on cultural activities only, while others wanted both areas to be central to the association. Some of the original funders supported a candidate for president who ensured this later approach during their General Assembly, and this President was elected and serves as the current president of that association²³⁴. There were tensions within another association in its early years because founding members wanted to include cultural activities with awareness raising of human rights issues in their country of origin; but there was a fragmentation of members and the ones who stay continued focused on cultural activities without a human rights focus. Finally, one of the academic and scientific migrant association went through a restructuring process to expand its target population and also include social sciences; however, this proved to be a complicated process between exclusive and inclusive approaches, and in the end the inclusive approach won²³⁵.

Leadership is the other area of tension. Two associations faced power struggles within board members as some of the leaders where attached to the power and recognition that this role provided both within the community as well as with local authorities. A related element of tension was the power to influence the type of activities taking

233 BCI, “Appel Aux Projets 2019. Conditions et Modalités d’octroi de Subventionnement En Faveur de Projets Pour l’intégration Des Étrangers et/Ou La Prévention Du Racisme.”

234 Information was provided through the interview of the association’s leader.

235Information was provided through the interview of the association’s leader.

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place²³⁶. Another association confronted the arrival to the board of Andean – Spanish, shifting the primary focus of the association solely towards this population until the association’s founders and older members recovered the power and initial focus²³⁷. In terms of tensions between Andean migrant associations, two collaborating association had some differences of opinion regarding project selection in the country of origin after a natural disaster. Money for projects was collected through a cultural event organized by the two associations. The two association finally agreed on the selected project²³⁸. In another instance, there was also a degree of power struggle and competition between four Andean associations’ leaders related to old time quarrels regarding the recognition of these individual as leaders within the community²³⁹.