The exodus means a great tragedy for the country whose negative impacts will extend into the future. A column by Ramón Cardozo.
In these last two decades, Venezuela has aged prematurely due to the incredibly large number of young Venezuelans leaving the country.
The country has lost, perhaps permanently, a high percentage of young people, many of them professionals and skilled workers, who represented a window of opportunity to boost its future development.
Currently, there are 7.1 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the world.
Of this number, 5.96 million (84.9%) are distributed in 17 Latin American countries. This, especially in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Brazil, according to data from the RV4 Platform.
This enormous migratory flow of Venezuelans has occurred in three successive waves throughout these first decades of the 21st century.
The first of these waves took place during the initial years of the first government of Hugo Chávez.
This first wave was motivated by the uncertainty caused by the implantation in the country of the revolutionary socialism of the 21st century.
This first wave was also influenced by the dismissal in 2003 of 47% (17,871 workers) of the payroll of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
The second wave was linked to Chávez’s presidential re-election in 2006 and the despair of achieving regime change in Venezuela.
These first two waves were made up of professionals and businessmen, who had favorable economic conditions.
High educational levels, connections and high possibilities of inserting themselves in the chosen countries of destination were added.
humanitarian emergency
The last migratory wave began as a result of the complex humanitarian emergency that Venezuela began to suffer from the year 2015.
This crisis has so far caused the “forced migration” of more than five million Venezuelans, who have gone mainly to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Unlike the previous waves, the profile of the migrant of this third wave crosses the entire social and territorial spectrum of Venezuela.
This is why a high percentage of them, which can exceed 50%, have a very vulnerable condition.
This, according to the results of the last “National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI)”, from the Andrés Bello Catholic University.
To a large extent, this condition of vulnerability has made it difficult for this group of Venezuelan migrants to move, enter and enter the countries chosen as destination.
Venezuelans with insertion difficulties
The reception and management of these large flows of vulnerable migrant population has been a challenge for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This, especially from the year 2020, when their economies were hit by the pandemic.
This situation was further aggravated in 2022 by the rampant inflation that occurred in Latin America as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Within this context, and according to the Refugee And Migrant Needs 2022 report, “living costs, including food, energy, rent and medicines”.
“They shot up across the region, profoundly affecting not only vulnerable refugees and migrants, but also host communities,” they add.
Xenophobia and discrimination against Venezuelans
This report reflects that 60.5% of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Latin America have difficulties accessing food, housing and formal employment.
For example, 76% of Venezuelans in Peru, 46% in Costa Rica, and 73% in Panama lack the resources to continue paying their rent.
Regarding employment, 34% of Venezuelan migrants in Ecuador, 64% in Guyana, 35% in Panama, 40% in Uruguay, 29% in Bolivia, 27% Paraguay and 25% in Argentina report be unemployed
Regarding the nutrition of migrant children under five years of age, it was found that 13.4% in Brazil, 4.4% in Peru, and 3% in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia had acute malnutrition.
There are no conditions for a massive return
Despite the difficulties, some macroeconomic indices in Venezuela have shown a slight recovery compared to 2021.
This is a situation that Nicolás Maduro took advantage of through an intense media campaign insisting that “Venezuela is fixing itself.”
The truth is that, up to now, the conjunction of these factors has not been able to stop the departure of Venezuelans from the country. Nor have they been able to significantly stimulate the return of migrants to Venezuela.