Venezuelan Immigrants Research Articles

From immigrants to local entrepreneurs: understanding the effects of migration on entrepreneurship in a highly informal country

PurposeMotivated by a lack of evidence regarding the effect of migration on entrepreneurship in a highly informal country, such as Colombia, this paper has a twofold purpose. First, it explores how Venezuelan immigration affects entrepreneurial activity in Colombian regions. Second, it intends to shed light on this relationship, by distinguishing between formal and informal sectors.Design/methodology/approachWith a sample of 1,776,063 individuals, from the Labor Survey Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (GEIH) from the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE), the authors employ an instrumental variable approach to account for the selection of immigrants into locations with more or less desirable conditions.FindingsThe results suggest Venezuelan immigration positively influences self-employment and own-account workers, but negatively affects employers. However, once these immigrants proliferate in the informal sector, the effects increase.Originality/valueThis paper brings new insights into the intersection between immigration, unofficial economies, and entrepreneurship. First, while the prior literature focuses on migration from developing to developed countries, migratory flows between developing economies and its effects on local entrepreneurial activity remain unexplored. Second, although informality is mostly common in developing countries, little (albeit growing) evidence of its role in the relationship between migration and entrepreneurship research exists. Finally, the authors bring together these two phenomena to enhance our understanding of different types of entrepreneurial activities when immigration and informality take place. Policy implications are derived from these insights.

COVID-19 response in Colombia: Hits and misses

IntroductionColombia has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, being ranked 22nd among 187 countries in deaths per 100,000 people by February 2022. The country has also experienced the worst economic recession in its history, with real GDP contracting 7% in 2020. This paper describes Colombia's pre-pandemic context and the overall effect of the pandemic on health and economic indicators and examines the government's response to COVID-19. MethodsDescriptive chronologic policy analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia and the measures and interventions implemented, using publicly available secondary data from Colombia's official agencies and international sources published from March 2020 to February 2022. ResultsThe Colombian healthcare system increased its capacity in terms of infrastructure and human resources (from 8.6 ICU beds per 100,000 pre-pandemic to 21.9 in 2020, from 1.7 to 1.3 per 1000 doctors and nurses, respectively in 2019 to 1.8 and 1.5 per 1000 in 2020). The government commenced the National Vaccination Strategy on February 17, 2021, despite a slow start it managed to fully vaccinate 65.1% of its population, including Venezuelan immigrants, by February 2022. ConclusionsColombia's response to the pandemic combines hits and misses. The country organized an early and robust response; increased its healthcare system capacity; designed a risk-based, equitable, and inclusive national vaccination strategy; and introduced a flexible and responsive vaccine rollout. However, the government chose the wrong timing for reform, implemented a long and unpredictable lockdown, was late to procure COVID-19 vaccines and has not appropriately tackled vaccine hesitancy. Public interest summaryColombia has been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 138,000 COVID-19 deaths and over 6 million cases by the end of February 2022. According to number of deaths per 100,000 people, Colombia ranks 22nd in the world, among 187 countries. The country has also experienced the worst economic recession in its history. The Colombian healthcare system has been able to cope with a high number of COVID-19 cases without collapsing, but some public health indicators deteriorated. Colombia's response to the pandemic combines hits and misses. The country organized an early and robust response; increased its healthcare system capacity; designed a risk-based, equitable, and inclusive national vaccination strategy; and introduced a flexible and responsive vaccine rollout. As of February 2022, Colombia has fully vaccinated 65.1% of its population. However, the government chose the wrong timing for a tax reform, implemented a long and unpredictable lockdown, was late to procure COVID-19 vaccines and has not appropriately tackled vaccine hesitancy, which certainly contributed to its undesirable position in the mortality world raking.

Assessing the impact of recent Venezuelan immigration on housing rents in Colombia

ABSTRACT The economic and social crisis faced by Venezuela since 2013 has led to a massive migration of its population to neighbouring countries, with Colombia being the nation that has been the most impacted. This paper estimates the impact of Venezuelan immigration on housing rents in Colombia’s main cities. Using a repeated cross-section data of Colombian households between 2013 and 2019, along with an instrumental variables approach, this study finds that a 1% increase in the proportion of Venezuelan immigrants to residents in the main cities in Colombia raises housing rents, on average, by about 1.25%.

Immigrants resettlement in developing countries: A data-driven decision tool applied to the case of Venezuelan immigrants in Colombia

Immigrants' choice of settlement in a new country can play a fundamental role in their socio-economic integration. This is especially relevant if there are important gaps among these locations in terms of significant factors such as job opportunities, quality of health service, among others. This research presents a methodology to perform a recommended geographic redistribution of immigrants to improve their chances of socio-economic integration. The proposed methodology adapts a data-driven algorithm developed by the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University to allocate immigrants based on a socio-economic integration outcome across available locations. We extend their approach to study the immigration process between two developing countries. Specifically, we focus on the case of the arrival of immigrants from Venezuela to Colombia. We consider the absorptive capacity of locations in Colombia and include the health and education needs of immigrants in our analysis. From the application in the Venezuelan-Colombian context, we find that the proposed redistribution increases the probability that immigrants access formal employment by more than 50%. Furthermore, we identify variables associated with immigrants' formal employment and discuss specific strategies to improve the probability of success of vulnerable immigrants.

My Brother the “Other”: Use of Satire and Boundary‐Making by Venezuelan Migrants in Peru

While the criminalization and hyper‐sexualization of Venezuelanmigrants and refugees across South America have received growing scholarly attention, fairly little is known about the coping strategies of migrants in this context. In this article, we build on quantitative and qualitative data from a survey (N = 100), 72 in‐depth interviews, and five focus groups with Venezuelan immigrants in five Peruvian cities, collected between 2018 and 2020, to explore how they make sense of, and react to, negative shifts in public opinion on immigration and the criminalization of Venezuelan nationals. We identify two broad coping mechanisms: (a) opposition to their criminalization, including its satirical ridiculing, and (b) intra‐group boundary‐making and “othering.” Our findings make an important contribution to the literature on migrant responses to criminalization and intra‐group relations in the Global South.

Immigrants’ Contribution to Development in the Global South: Comparing Policy Responses to Venezuelan Immigration in Peru and Argentina

By April 2021, Venezuela’s multidimensional crisis had led over 5.6 million of the country’s citizens to emigrate, mostly across South America. This chapter offers a comparative analysis of national policy responses to Venezuelan immigration in Argentina and Peru from a development perspective in the period 2015‒2020. Although the government of each country recognised the potential of disproportionate numbers of highly skilled Venezuelan immigrants, Argentina has been more successful than Peru in offering them legal pathways to immigration and incorporating them into the formal labour market. Our key argument is that Argentina has been able to foster the integration of Venezuelans—in terms of granting regular status, validating academic and professional degrees and providing access to basic social services—for three reasons: first, the lower overall numbers and higher socio-economic characteristics of the migrants; second, Argentina’s progressive legislative immigration framework; and third, the prominent role of civil society actors lobbying for immigrants and pushing for more inclusive public policies. In the case of Peru, the rapid increase in numbers of immigrants has led to a surge in xenophobic public opinion, which has generated pressure to implement non-inclusive policies. The country’s new immigration law lacks institutional consolidation, and there is no strong civil society to act as a counterweight to restrictive policy developments. The chapter contributes to the literature on the migration–development nexus, pointing out the importance of state capacity and civil society when thinking about migration and development in the global South.

Understanding emotion regulation in Venezuelan immigrants to Peru and Peruvian internal migrants: a comparative study

ABSTRACT Migration is a phenomenon that impacts a range of areas in people's lives. However, research identifying differences and similarities in socio-emotional processes, considering different types of migration, is scant. Adopting a resilient framework, the present study sought to fill a gap in knowledge by comparing Venezuelan migrants (n = 346) to Peru with Peruvian internal migrants (n = 294) residing in the same city. The results showed significant differences in the emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and suppression) in favour of Venezuelan migrants, while a higher level of perception of social support from friends was observed in the Peruvian sample. A greater number of social predictors (perceived social support from family and significant other) and sociodemographic variables (gender and student status) on emotion regulation were observed in the Venezuelan sample; whereas in the Peruvian sample only two significant predictors (perceived social support from family and work status) contributed to emotion regulation strategies. It is concluded that migration, whether international or internal, is associated with adaptive processes, whereby social supports and socio-demographic characteristics can act as protective or risk factors. These findings have implications for the development of policies in support of migrants’ psychological well-being.

A validation of the Perceived Negative Context of Reception Scale with recently-arrived Venezuelan immigrants in Colombia and the United States.

Millions of Venezuelans have left their country in search of safety and stability in the United States (U.S.) and Colombia, two countries where recent increases in anti-immigrant rhetoric and sentiment have occurred. The Perceived Negative Context of Reception Scale captures the degree to which immigrants report feeling that people from their country are unwanted/marginalized within their new receiving context. In the present study, we examine the psychometric properties of the Perceived Negative Context of Reception Scale with recent Venezuelan immigrant adolescents and adults in the U.S. and Colombia. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis using data from the Colombia and Miami's Newest Arrivals (CAMINAR) Study, which collected data from Venezuelan adults in Bogotá, Colombia, and South Florida in October-November 2017, and the Venezolanos en Nuevos Entornos (VENE) Youth Project which surveyed Venezuelan youth living in Florida between November 2018 and July 2019. We found that the negative context of reception evidenced strong psychometric properties among immigrants in both the U.S. and in Colombia, among adolescents and adults, and among male and female respondents. We also found that negative context of reception scores was associated with elevated scores on criterion-related factors-that is, perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms-in ways that are theoretically coherent and support measure validity. We provide new evidence that the Perceived Negative Context of Reception scale is reliable and valid for use with Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. and Colombia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Genosphobia: The signification of gender in the cultural logic of xenophobia

In general, xenophobia refers to fear or hatred of the ‘stranger’ and it is recognized as a multivocal term, largely overlapped with ethnocentrism, racism, nationalism, extremism or nativism. In this article, I show that it still has layers of meaning to be explored. Based on thirteen mixed interviews (semi-structured and in-depth) conducted in the city of Lima (Peru), in this work I argue that there is a stratum in the meaning of xenophobia that has not been explored in the academic literature: the overlapping of gender (both male and female) with the rejection of immigrants (in this case, Venezuelan immigrants in Lima), which I propose to call genosphobia. After describing the serendipitous discovery of this meaning stratum, I carry out an analysis of the cultural logic of xenophobia and a ‘thick’ description of the meaning construction of this phenomenon. The analysis leads to show the articulation of a ‘cultural libel’ by those who openly reject the immigrants, which in turn leads to an assimilationist mode of incorporation to the detriment of a lively multiculturalism.

Perinatal Outcomes Among Venezuelan Immigrants in Colombia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

In the last decade, Venezuela suffers a humanitarian crisis, leading to massive emigration. One of the most vulnerable migrants´ groups is pregnant women. We analyzed the perinatal outcomes of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and identified if migration was associated with perinatal outcomes. Birth data were obtained from the 2017 Colombian national birth registry (1085 births in migrants and 654,829 in Colombians). Logistic and linear regression models were used to identify the association between the demographic, obstetric and neonatal characteristics with premature birth (PB), low birth weight (LBW), 1-min, and 5-min Apgar score. Venezuelan were more likely to have newborns with LBW, lower Apgar scores at 1-min and 5-min in comparison to Colombians. Furthermore, a difference was observed in the low health insurance coverage and antenatal care visits among Venezuelan in comparison to natives. Access to health care services for the migrants is desirable for the improvement of perinatal health conditions.

Labor market insertion of professional Venezuelan immigrants in northern Chile: precariousness and discrimination in the light of migration policy

Abstract This article describes the labor market insertion experiences of a group of professional Venezuelan immigrants in northern Chile. Using a qualitative methodology, fourteen people who met the inclusion criteria were interviewed. The participants' discourses show that their experiences have been stressful because they have not been able to revalidate their degrees, have to take on jobs for which they are overqualified, and suffer exploitation and discrimination. The stories are analyzed based on previous studies and related theory, finding that the main factor affecting this reality is the current Chilean immigration legislation, which has an orientation based on control and national security. It is concluded that the current immigration legislation facilitates immigrants' labor precariousness and contributes to their situation of vulnerability.

Perception of threat as a mediator of the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice towards Venezuelan migrants in Peru

Objectives: The present study aims to explore the relationship between stereotypes (morality, warmth, and competence) and prejudice (subtle and blatant) towards Venezuelan immigrants in Peru. In addition, the role of threat perception as a mediator in the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice towards this social group is analyzed. Method: A correlational research design was conducted, using the Subtle and Blatant Prejudice Scale, the National Stereotypes Scale, and the Out-Group Threat Perception Scale. The sample consisted of 115 participants of Peruvian nationality between 18 and 60 years old (M = 29.6; SD = 11.77). Results: The results confirm the inverse relationship between positive representation and ambivalent prejudice. In other words, when Venezuelans are represented as more competent, warm and moral, there are fewer expressions of subtle and blatant prejudice towards this social group. The regression coefficient of the relationships between stereotypes and prejudice tends to decrease when perceived threat is incorporated as a mediating variable in the partial mediation model. Conclusions: The relationships between the studied variables are confirmed. Furthermore, their importance for the implementation of interventions that promote intergroup contact, social inclusion, and questioning of social agents that reinforce a threatening representation of the Latin American immigrant is discussed.

Crime in Trinidad and Tobago: the possible impacts of increased crime due to migration from Venezuela

ABSTRACT Trinidad and Tobago has been subjected to rising crime over the last decade; there is now concern that increased migration from Venezuela will add to this trend, leaving the host government less equipped to deal with the rising phenomenon. The 2019 amnesty granted by the government to undocumented Venezuelan migrants has increased concerns related to the socioeconomic and security impact of this migration flow; this has subsequently been transmuted to a rising ‘anti-Venezuelan’ sentiment in the country. This article seeks to interrogate the real and perceived impact of this influx of Venezuelans on crime and security in Trinidad and Tobago by evaluating media reports and articles published on the issue, and reviewing the literature on the rising crime rate in Trinidad and Tobago. It was noted that the media has contributed to an increasing sentiment of suspicion and paranoia towards Venezuelan immigrants which serves to anecdotally attribute increased crime levels to this group. Further, as there is a dearth of official statistics to differentiate the criminal activities of the Venezuelans vis-à-vis the Trinidad and Tobago nationals, it is hard to definitively attribute increases in crime to the migrants. The authors conclude with the presentation of potential policy recommendations to address the issues.

A Qualitative Study of the Health Perceptions in the Venezuelan Immigrant Population in Medellín (Colombia) and Its Conditioning Factors.

This study explored the general and oral health perceptions in the Venezuelan immigrant population in Medellín (Colombia) and its conditioning factors. A qualitative study involving Venezuelan immigrants ≥18 years with a minimum stay of six months in Colombia was conducted. Dentists, dental students, and other health professionals also participated. Semi-structured interviews (n = 17), focus groups (n = 2), and key informants’ interviews (n = 4) were utilized. The interviews and focus groups were recorded and transcribed for later narrative content analysis. A high degree of vulnerability of participants was found due to the precarious living conditions from the premigratory moment and the lack of job placement possibilities at the time of settling in Colombia, where the migratory status played a fundamental role. Among the perceived needs, the mitigation of noncommunicable diseases stood out. Poor mental health symptoms (depression and anxiety) were perceived, and oral health was not a priority. Barriers to accessing health and dental care were found. The migrant condition was found to be a determinant that affected physical, mental, and oral health and the provision of health care. This situation is of interest to the construction of public health policies that guarantee access to fundamental rights.

Wage Inequality of Venezuelan Migrants in Ecuador

Venezuelan immigration to the equator has been a pressure on the country’s labor market. The government estimates that some 300,000 immigrants have settled permanently in the country. This paper analyzes the differences between the distribution of salaries of Venezuelan immigrants in Ecuador and the locals. Using microdata from the 2016–2019 employment survey, a parametric and nonparametric decomposition was made. A gap between 14 and 42% was found for newly arrived immigrants. However, for those who arrived 3 years ago the gap is not significant. The reduction in this gap is due to an improvement in the supply of workers. This confirms the fact that there is employment discrimination against newly arrived immigrants despite the fact that they show equal or even higher endowments than locals.

Healthcare-related expenditures among immigrants and non-immigrants living with HIV in colombia.

The perception that immigrants represent a burden to national health systems can hinder the development of policies for their inclusion in health coverage. In order to inform the development of such policies, data on the healthcare needs and healthcare spending for immigrants is required. The objective of this article is to compare the clinical characteristics and healthcare-related expenditures of Venezuelan immigrants and non-migrants living with HIV in Colombia. We analysed data from the Colombian High-cost Diseases Fund from February 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019, identifying the hospital and non-hospital expenditures per patient for Venezuelan immigrants and non-migrant patients, in both the state-subsidised and the contributory coverage schemes. We employed binomial negative regression models to compare expenditures between the two groups. In the contributory scheme, the average annual per-capita expenditure for immigrants was USD $ 859.07 (SD: ± $793.37) for non-hospital care. For non-migrants, the average costs were 1,796.53. In the state-subsidised scheme expenditures were higher on average, but still lower for immigrants than for non-migrants. After adjusting by clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, non-hospital per capita expenditures were lower for immigrants as compared with non-migrants (25,37% lower in the state-subsidised scheme, and 33,75% lower in the contributory scheme). Hospital expenditures were also lower, but the small sample size limited analysis. To conclude, Venezuelan immigrants living with HIV do not represent a major economic burden to the health system in Colombia. Further studies are required in order to understand if the lower healthcare expenditures of this population are the result of limitations in healthcare access, of clinical characteristics that were not assessed in this study, or of other unmeasured aspects.

What do immigrants make of immigration policies? Insights from interviews with Venezuelans in Chile

AbstractIn this article, we build on qualitative data from 37 in‐depth interviews with Venezuelan immigrants in Chile, collected in 2017 and 2018, to explore how they make sense of sudden immigration policy changes made by the Sebastián Piñera government in mid‐2018. Linked to these perceptions, we explore our interviewees’ attitudes towards other immigrant groups. We contend that, while immigrant participation in policymaking often is a normatively desired form of inclusion, immigrant perceptions of other immigrants and of immigration policy are not uniform. We find that immigrants can have very negative perceptions of other immigrants, favouring restrictive policies. Immigrants influence the contexts of reception for newcomers, and—in the case of Chile—they have voting and political rights that places them in a position of casting some influence over immigration policies. Studying the Venezuelan case is particularly illuminating, as this immigration was considered a desirable or acceptable immigration.

Estimating the Effect of Immigration on Public Finances: Evidence from the Influx of Venezuelan Migrants to Colombia

We investigate the fiscal impact of immigration on the Colombian economy from 2013 to 2018 using an accounting approach and exploiting the large and sudden increase in inflows from Venezuela. In other words, we estimated the difference between the taxes and other contributions migrants make to public finances and the costs of the public benefits and services they receive. Our findings show that immigrants tend to have less access to, and make lower use of, the welfare system, and do not suggest strong evidence of immigrants imposing a higher burden to public finances relative to natives. When we consider only Venezuelan immigrants, consisting of both the Venezuelan-born population and those native-born returnees arriving from Venezuela, our estimates indicate that while they have a less favorable net fiscal position relative to natives, which is driven by the net contributions to regional and local government budgets, their overall fiscal effect is fairly modest in terms of GDP. When we considered the effect that demographic characteristics play on explaining the differences in the net fiscal contributions among groups, our results suggest that the higher fiscal impact of Venezuelan-born immigrants is driven by recent arrivals, as they contribute on average less in terms of income taxes and social security contributions and have a higher reliance for group expenditures. In contrast, immigrants that have been in the country for more than a year have—if any—a better per capita fiscal position than natives. Finally, since migration is not distributed uniformly across space, the fiscal effects at the local level are not homogeneous. We show that the fiscal effects on local budgets are mediated by two forces: cities’ fiscal effort (the ability to raise revenues from their own sources) and the share of immigrants in the local population.

Chickenpox outbreak among Venezuelan immigrants housed in shelters and occupancies in the state of Roraima, Brazil, 2019: a descriptive study.

To describe chickenpox outbreak among Venezuelan immigrants in shelters and occupancies in the municipalities of Pacaraima and Boa Vista, the state capital of Roraima, Brazil, and the control measures implemented. This was a descriptive case series study, conducted between November 21 and December 13, 2019, based on secondary database obtained from the outbreak investigation made available by the General Coordination for the National Immunization Program. Descriptive analysis was performed using simple and relative frequency measurements, and measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated. Of the 9,591 immigrants, 38 active cases and 1,459 susceptible to varicella were identified. With regard to active cases, 23 were female, and those aged under 9 years (17 cases) were the most affected. People susceptible to chickenpox were identified during the investigation. Immunization actions aimed at reducing transmission were adopted, thus preventing severe cases, deaths and overload in local health care system.

The impact of immigration on tuberculosis and HIV burden between Colombia and Venezuela and across frontier regions.

Historically, human migrations have determined the spread of many infectious diseases by promoting the emergence of temporal outbreaks between populations. We aimed to analyze health indicators, expenditure, and disability caused by tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS burden under the Colombian-Venezuelan migration flow focusing on the Northeastern border. A retrospective study was conducted using TB and HIV/AIDS data since 2009. We consolidated a database using official reports from the Colombian Surveillance System, World Health Organization, Indexmundi, the Global Health Observatory, IHME HIV atlas, and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Disability metrics regarding DALYs (disability adjusted life years) and YLDs (years lived with disability), were compared between countries. Mapping was performed on ArcGIS using official migration data of Venezuelan citizens. Our results indicate that TB profiles from Colombia and Venezuela are identical in terms of disease burden, except for an increase in TB incidence in the Colombian-Venezuelan border departments in recent years, concomitantly with the massive Venezuelan immigration since 2005. We identified a four-fold underfunding for the TB program in Venezuela, which might explain the low-testing rates for cases of multidrug-resistant TB (67%) and HIV/AIDS (60%), as well as extended hospital stays (150 days). We found a significant increase in DALYs of HIV/AIDS patients in Venezuela, specifically, 362.35 compared to 265.37 observed in Colombia during 2017. This study suggests that the Venezuelan massive migration and program underfunding might exacerbate the dual burden of TB and HIV in Colombia, especially towards the Colombian-Venezuelan border.