Lara Finkbeiner

Lara Finkbeiner

BA, History, 2008
U.S. Department of State Student Fulbright Fellowship

“My experiences as a Fulbright scholar working among refugees in Ecuador have reinforced my goal to become a lawyer focused on refugee rights, policy, and protection.”

Lara Finkbeiner has been conducting a research project funded by a Fulbright fellowship in Quito, Ecuador. Her research plans to evaluate the success of the Mexico Plan of Action, which twenty Latin American countries signed in 2004 in an attempt to address the refugee issue in Latin America, especially in and around Colombia. Among the estimated 250,000 Colombians living in Ecuador, only 16,000 have received refugee status, which makes the majority ineligible to work and receive international protection.

Lara is working with the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in her attempt to highlight the gaps in the current humanitarian response to the Colombian population in Ecuador. By conducting interviews with members of humanitarian organizations, the Ecuadorian government, and refugees themselves, Lara hopes to identify specific areas in which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other nongovernmental organizations can better implement the objectives of the Mexico Plan of Action and address the urgent needs of displaced Colombians in Ecuador.