Giving Compass' Take:

• Andrew Selee, Jessica Bolter, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, and Miryam Hazán explore the ways in which Latin American countries are legally accepting Venezuelan migrants, benefiting immigrants and hosts alike. 

• How can funders help to ease the transition and maximize the benefits for all parties involved? Can the U.S. better welcome and incorporate immigrants? 

• Learn more about the Venezuelan refugee crisis. 

At least 3 million Venezuelans—and perhaps many more—were living abroad at the end of 2018.1 The majority have left during the past three years, fleeing a rapidly collapsing economy, with consumer prices increasing more than 1.3 million percent in 2018, severe food and medical shortages, and political strife. This explosive combination of circumstances has created one of the world’s largest and fastest migration and refugee flows in recent memory. Around 80 percent of the Venezuelans who have left their country have settled elsewhere in Latin America, a region that has never before seen such an extensive internal flow of refugees and migrants. Within Latin America, the vast majority of Venezuelan migrants have arrived in eight countries: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Panama, and Mexico.

In a region where national legal frameworks are generally open to migration, the response by Latin American governments has largely been both generous and pragmatic. Most have opted to create pathways for Venezuelans to enter, obtain legal status, and remain there, at least on an interim basis. This is both a demonstration of regional solidarity with a vulnerable population fleeing difficult and deteriorating conditions in its homeland, and a practical calculation that granting legal status to these new arrivals will generate better outcomes for the host societies in the long run.

All of the Latin American countries receiving Venezuelan migrants and refugees are facing significant short- to medium-term costs, including those associated with processing their entry and scaling up public services to meet increased demand. Yet most have made the wise decision to bet on the future benefits that these new arriv- als could bring to their economies and societies, rather than trying to resist their entry or push the new arrivals into the underground economy. After all, migration from Venezuela represents an opportunity for many countries in the region to gain access to relatively qualified human capital; overcome demographic imbalances associated with aging populations and diminishing fertility rates; sustain social security systems as Venezuelan residents become contributors; and generate overall economic growth.