Miami Council For International Visitors

The Miami Council for International Visitors (MCIV) is committed to the idea that Americans, during the course of their everyday lives, can and should be engaged in foreign relations as citizen diplomats for the United States. Citizen diplomacy is the idea that the individual citizen has the right, even the responsibility, to help shape United States’ foreign relations “one handshake at a time.” Through its programs and activities MCIV and its outstanding citizen diplomats foster this belief in international understanding and cooperation, constructive economic connections and peaceful interaction.

“If only people will get together, then so eventually will nations.”

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Since 1959, MCIV has welcomed thousands of prominent and emerging leaders from around the globe to the Miami metropolitan region. Specifically, it has customized professional programs, cultural activities, business meetings and hospitality for international dignitaries invited to our country by our own U.S. embassies, principally through the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, which was created by the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchanage Act of 1961 (the Fulbright-Hays Act) and is funded by an annual Congressional appropriation to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

Through this program MCIV welcomes hundreds of emerging world leaders each year to South Florida. By structuring programs that benefit both the visitors and our South Florida hosts, MCIV has played an important role in portraying Miami as the dynamic cultural, political, and economic center it has become, paving the way for other South Florida organizations that will ultimately benefit through the contacts each participant established here in South Florida.

In addition to meeting their peers in business, culture, or politics in South Florida, visitors also are exposed to some of the most vibrant people that comprise the Miami community and who, under other circumstances, might never have the opportunity to meet. For example, MCIV members are invited to participate in cultural activities with the visitors. They are also invited to host individuals for home and or/or dinner hospitality. It is through this one-on-one interaction that old prejudices are dismissed, understanding of different cultures promoted, and human civility encouraged. It gives visitors and hosts a glimpse into each other’s lives thereby linking world citizens through human contact.

We invite you to join MCIV.  Help us bring the World to South Florida.  Become a citizen diplomat for the betterment of your community and our world.