From integration to securitization: Venezuelan migration discourses and policy in South America


Cheryl Martens, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

The multidimensional crisis in Venezuela has led millions of people to flee Venezuela in conditions of extreme vulnerability. The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (2023) reports that as of September 2023, the number of displaced Venezuelans has reached 7,710,887. Of this number, 6,527,064 now reside in Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 2018 and 2023 the percentage of intra-regional Venezuelan migration increased by approximately 426%. The problematic scope and speed of this phenomenon, however, is tightly embedded in a regional context deficient in public goods and services, generating conflicts within the host communities, which are characterized by pockets of violence and institutionalized xenophobia. Using analytical categories from Halls (1993) types of change of public policy to analyze the context of the recent intra-regional migration, this study combines migration policy analysis with media content and discourse analysis of over 500 newspaper articles between 2018 and 2023 to examine the evolution of discourses and migration policy implementation. This paper focuses on four of the main destination countries for Venezuelan emigration: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.  We argue that the exodus of Venezuelan migrants has led to a shift in discourses and a paradigm change in regional migration policies, from favourable discourses and policies promoting freedom of mobility to securitization approaches, restricting the freedom to live and work in South America and limiting the socioeconomic integration of Venezuelan immigrants across the region. This research also demonstrates a growing displacement of State actors in the management of migration policy at national levels toward new regional alliances and policy mandates led by international actors.

Non-presenting authors: Taymi Milan, USFQ; Cristen Davalos, USFQ

This paper will be presented at the following session: