Special Issue: Policies and Politics of Venezuelan Migration in Latin America

This special issue of International Migration brings together seven articles that deepen our understanding of Latin American political and policy reactions to Venezuelan displacement at a national level, the role of regional protection mechanisms for displaced populations, such as the Cartagena Declaration refugee definition, as well as Venezuelans’ perceptions of such policies. More specifically, the articles offer analyses of the policy reactions of five South American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) and Mexico, as well as a regional perspective regarding the applicability of the Cartagena refugee definition to the Venezuelan case. The articles in this issue originate from discussions that took place during two panels that were organized by the co-editors in the 2019 Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress, titled Venezuelan International Migration in the Americas: Origins and Challenges.

Overall, the special issue’s contribution is threefold. First, a South-North bias continues to underlie mainstream migration theories, leaving the dynamics of, and the political and policy reactions to, south-south flows substantially understudied. This lacuna is particularly worrisome considering that, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by 2020, countries in the Global South hosted 86 per cent of all forcibly displaced people (UNHCR, 2020). The focus on Latin American governments’ reception of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, thus, serves to remedy this void in the literature. Second, both scholars and specialists have pointed out that the refugee definition of the 1951 United Nations (UN) Convention on the Status of Refugees excludes many situations of forced mobility. Therefore, extended regional definitions seek to provide special protection in situations of broader humanitarian crises. The present issue aims to better understand the application of regional protection mechanisms, as well as related challenges, for the case of the Cartagena Declaration refugee definition. In addressing these points, the articles in the special issue also allow us to better understand the political and practical barriers to the implementation of exceptionally progressive immigration and refugee legislation, contributing to the literature on implementation gaps in the region.