La producción política de las necesidades en el gobierno de las migraciones y el refugio: asistencialización de la protección en el espacio sudamericano

Objective/context: This paper analyzes how the political production of the notion of needs redefines international protection in the governance of migration and refuge in South America, based on the emergence of new categories and intervention practices driven by the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V) and the Regional Response Plans (RMRP). The article problematizes the political interpretation of needs, their (re)definition, and their impact on the transformation of protection and assistance policies, with special attention to the process of assistentialization of protection and the increasing fragmentation and precarization of institutional responses. Methodology: A qualitative approach is employed, based on the systematization and analysis of institutional documents—mainly the RMRP since 2019—complemented by field observations and interviews conducted in intervention spaces in the Southern Cone. Conclusions: The article argues that the need-protection-control triad operates as a dynamic piece that legitimizes new forms of political hierarchization and fragmentation of migrant and refugee populations. The assistentialization of protection, characterized by the proliferation of actors and compartmentalization of practices, reproduces inequalities and reinforces the dependence of populations in movement on institutions. This approach contributes to denaturalizing the meanings and relationships under which the notion of needs is produced in the institutional grammar of protection, control, and assistance policies in the region. Originality: This research offers a critical perspective on recent migration governance processes in South America, revealing how institutional definitions of need shape new forms of control and precarization of migrant life.