Venezuelan refugee crisis

Venezuelan refugee crisis
Part of Crisis in Venezuela
(top to bottom, left to right)
Hundreds of Venezuelans waiting to seal their passports in an Ecuadorian customs house; Colombian National Police leading Venezuelans into Cúcuta, Colombia; Airline passengers leaving Venezuela from Maiquetia Airport
Date1999–present
(main phase since 2015)
LocationVenezuela
Also known asBolivarian diaspora
Venezuelan exodus
CauseSocial issues, political repression, crime, economic downturn, corruption, poverty, censorship, unemployment, hyperinflation, shortages, undernutrition, human rights violations and others[1][2][3]
Outcome

The Venezuelan refugee crisis, the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas,[5] refers to the emigration of millions of Venezuelans from their native country during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro since the Bolivarian Revolution.[1][2][6] The revolution was an attempt by Chávez and later Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony,[7][8] which culminated in the crisis in Venezuela.[9] The resulting refugee crisis has been compared to those faced by Cuban exiles, Syrian refugees and those affected by the European migrant crisis.[10][11][12] The Bolivarian government has denied any migratory crisis, stating that the United Nations and others are attempting to justify foreign intervention within Venezuela.[13]

Newsweek described the "Bolivarian diaspora" as "a reversal of fortune on a massive scale", where the reversal refers to Venezuela's high immigration rate during the 20th century.[2] Initially, upper class Venezuelans and scholars emigrated during Chávez's presidency, but middle- and lower-class Venezuelans began to leave as conditions worsened in the country.[14] This has caused a brain drain that affects the nation, due to the large number of emigrants who are educated or skilled.[15][16] During the crisis, Venezuelans have been asked about their desire to leave their native country;[17] over 30 percent of respondents to a December 2015 survey said that they planned to permanently leave Venezuela.[18] The percentage nearly doubled the following September as, according to Datincorp, 57 percent of respondents wanted to leave the country.[19] By mid-2019, over four million Venezuelans had emigrated since the revolution began in 1999.[20][21][22]

The United Nations predicted that by the end of 2019, there would have been over 5 million recorded emigrants during the Venezuelan crisis, over 15% of the population.[23] A late-2018 study by the Brookings Institution suggested that emigration would reach 6 million – approximately 20% of Venezuela's 2017 population – by the end of 2019,[24] with a mid-2019 poll by Consultares 21 estimating that up to 6 million Venezuelans had fled the country by this point;[25] estimates going into 2020 suggested that the number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees was overtaking the 6 million figure,[26] at this time the same number of refugees from the Syrian Civil War, which started years before the recorded Venezuelan crisis and was considered the worst humanitarian disaster in the world at the time.[26][27] Estimates had risen to 7.1 million by October 2022, over 20 percent of the country's population.[28]

The Norwegian Refugee Council, the Brookings Institution and the Organization of American States commissioner for the Venezuelan refugee crisis, David Smolansky, have estimated that the crisis is also one of the most underfunded refugee crisis in modern history.[29][30][31]

According to the UNHCR, more than 7.7 million people have emigrated from Venezuela in the years corresponding to Maduro's rise to power and the consolidation of Chavismo.[4] From May to August of 2023, 390,000 Venezuelans left their country, driven by despair over challenging living conditions, characterized by low wages, rampant inflation, lack of public services, and political repression. However, R4V suggests that these figures could be even higher, as many migrants without regular status are not included in the count.[32][4] The organization's calculation method is based on asylum requests and refugee registrations in each country, which might exclude those in irregular situations.[32] Despite the upcoming presidential elections, hope is scarce among Venezuelans. Many fear that through manipulations and frauds, Maduro might "get re-elected" and remain in power for another six years, despite his unpopularity. In this scenario, emigration might continue to be a constant in Venezuela's near future.[32][4]

  1. ^ a b Olivares, Francisco (September 13, 2014). "Best and brightest for export". El Universal. Archived from the original on September 16, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2014. The Bolivarian diaspora is a reversal of fortune on a massive scale
  2. ^ a b c "Hugo Chavez is Scaring Away Talent". Newsweek. June 30, 2009. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2014. The Bolivarian diaspora is a reversal of fortune on a massive scale
  3. ^ "Ten percent of Venezuelans are taking steps for emigrating". El Universal. August 16, 2014. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d "UNHCR, Venezuela situation".
  5. ^  • Board, Editorial (February 23, 2018). "Latin-America's worst-ever refugee crisis: Venezuelans". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 24, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2018. This human outflow, ... is the largest displacement of people in Latin American history
  6. ^  • Maria Delgado, Antonio (August 28, 2014). "Venezuela agobiada por la fuga masiva de cerebros". El Nuevo Herald. Archived from the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014. The massive emigration of Venezuelans, a trend that was unprecedented in the republican history of the nation, is mainly motivated by personal insecurity, legal insecurity and lack of options to progress under the Bolivarian regime
  7. ^ Canelón-Silva, Agrivalca Ramsenia (2014). "Del Estado Comunicador Al Estado De Los Medios. Catorce Años De Hegemonía Comunicacional En Venezuela". Palabra Clave. 17 (4). University of La Sabana: 1243–78. doi:10.5294/pacla.2014.17.4.11.
  8. ^ Rory, Carroll (2014). Comandante : Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Penguin Books: New York. pp. 182–94. ISBN 978-0143124887.
  9. ^ 남민우, 기 (May 2, 2018). "화폐경제 무너졌는데…최저임금 인상에 목매는 베네수엘라". 朝鮮日報 (in Korean). Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018. Venezuela's fall is considered to be mainly caused by the populist policy ... Venezuela, for decades, has increased the number of public sector employees and has promoted populist support to maintain the regime
  10. ^ Oner, Imdat (September 20, 2018). "Latin America is facing its worst refugee crisis in its history. Will it repeat the EU's mistakes regarding Syrian refugees?". Global Americans. Retrieved August 19, 2024.
  11. ^ "'I can't go back': Venezuelans are fleeing their crisis-torn country en masse". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  12. ^ Welsh, Teresa (September 19, 2018). "Venezuela crisis is 'on the scale of Syria,' UNHCR says". Devex. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  13. ^ "Venezuela government denies facing migration crisis". Al Jazeera. September 4, 2018. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  14. ^ LaFranchi, Howard (November 2, 2016). "Why time is ripe for US to address Venezuela's mess". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference ENHaug28 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Elimpulso23AUG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Pitts, Pietro D.; Rosati, Andrew (December 4, 2014). "Venezuela's Oil Industry Exodus Slowing Crude Production: Energy". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  18. ^ Lee, Brianna (December 2, 2015). "Venezuela Elections 2015: Why Venezuelans Are Fleeing The Country". International Business Times. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  19. ^ Margolis, Mac (September 14, 2016). "Latin America Has a Different Migration Problem". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  20. ^ "Refugees and migrants from Venezuela top 4 million: UNHCR and IOM". UNHCR. UNHCR, IOM. June 7, 2019. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  21. ^ "Gracias a las malas políticas del Gobierno bolivariano, más de 4 millones de venezolanos se han ido del país (encuesta)". La Patilla (in European Spanish). January 19, 2018. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  22. ^ Forero, Juan; Protti, Tommaso (February 13, 2018). "Venezuela's Misery Fuels Migration on Epic Scale". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  23. ^ "More than 5m set to flee Venezuela by end of this year". Financial Times. June 19, 2019. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  24. ^ Bahar, Dany; Barrios, Douglas (December 10, 2018). "How many more migrants and refugees can we expect out of Venezuela?". Brookings. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  25. ^ Wyss, Jim (August 13, 2019). "A nation is vanishing: Has Venezuela lost almost 20 percent of its population?". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  26. ^ a b Fieser, Ezra; Moran, Nancy (September 20, 2019). "Venezuela Exodus Is as Big as Syria's, Yet Got 1.5% of the Aid". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  27. ^ "Syrian refugees biggest humanitarian crisis". Middle East Star. August 28, 2014. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  28. ^ Buschschlüter, Vanessa (October 17, 2022). "Venezuela crisis: 7.1m leave country since 2015". BBC News. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  29. ^ "Horrors in the Darién Gap should prompt more support for Venezuelans and other refugees and migrants". Norwegian Refugee Council. Retrieved June 4, 2023.
  30. ^ Dooley, Dany Bahar and Meagan (December 9, 2019). "Venezuela refugee crisis to become the largest and most underfunded in modern history". Brookings Institution. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  31. ^ ""Ha faltado cooperación de internacional con refugiados venezolanos"". El Nacional (in Spanish). January 3, 2021. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  32. ^ a b c "Almost 8 million Venezuelans have been forced to leave their country due to the Maduro regime".