Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has put into sharp relief the need for socio-economic integration of migrants, regardless of their migratory condition. In South America, more than five million Venezuelan citizens have been forced to migrate across the region in the past five years. Alongside other intra-regional migrants and refugees, many find themselves in precarious legal and socio-economic conditions, as the surge in numbers has led to xenophobic backlashes in some of the main receiving countries, including Chile and Peru. In this paper, we explore in how far the COVID-19 crisis has offered stakeholders an opportunity to politically reframe migration and facilitate immigrant integration or, rather, further propelled xenophobic sentiments and the socio-economic and legal exclusion of immigrants.
Highlights
While the COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the need for social integration of migrants and refugees, it has revealed the lack of sustainable inclusion and integration policies across different countries of destination
Neighboring Chile and Peru are relevant cases as these two South American countries have seen a sharp increase in intraregional migration in recent years and are among the main destinations for Venezuelan migrants and refugees (R4V, 2020)1
While Chile turned into a destination of intraregional migration in the 2000s (Doña-Reveco and Levinson, 2012), and hosts migrants from a variety of different origins, Peru has only recently transitioned from an emigration to a transit and destination country of predominantly Venezuelan immigrants (Berganza and Freier, 2021)
Summary
While the COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the need for social integration of migrants and refugees, it has revealed the lack of sustainable inclusion and integration policies across different countries of destination. Entering, residing, and working regularly in Peru has since become much more difficult, if not impossible, for most Venezuelans, and the humanitarian visa presents an entry barrier to regular integration in practice This change in policy can be explained by an interplay between three factors: the change in number and social profiles of Venezuelan migrants, with a tendency toward lower social, economic, and educational statuses; and the rise in xenophobic attitudes among the Peruvian population, discussed above, as well as the internal political crisis, due to conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government (Aron Said and Castillo Jara, 2020). It is unlikely that these bills will be passed, the fact that they were formally presented before the relevant state commissions shows that there was a serious attempt by the parliamentary groups to transform xenophobic misconceptions into enforceable law
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