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 | |
Date | 1999–present (main phase since 2015) |
---|---|
Location | Venezuela |
Also known as | Bolivarian diaspora Venezuelan exodus |
Cause | Social 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,[6] 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][7] The revolution was an attempt by Chávez and later Maduro to establish a cultural and political hegemony,[8][9] which culminated in the crisis in Venezuela.[10] The resulting refugee crisis has been compared to those faced by Cuban exiles, Syrian refugees and those affected by the European migrant crisis.[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" is a comparison with 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] It has caused a brain drain that affected the nation, due to the large number of emigrants who are educated or skilled.[15][16] During the crisis, Venezuelans have often been asked about their desire to leave their native country,[17] and over 30 percent of those asked in 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 current most underfunded refugee crisis in modern history.[29][30][31]
According to updates from R4V[note 1], approximately 7.71 million people have emigrated from Venezuela in recent years, coinciding with Nicolás Maduro's rise to power and the consolidation of Chavismo.[4] From May to August of this year, 390,000 Venezuelans have 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.[4][5] The organization's calculation method is based on asylum requests and refugee registrations in each country, which might exclude those in irregular situations.[4] 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.[4][5]
The Bolivarian diaspora is a reversal of fortune on a massive scale
The Bolivarian diaspora is a reversal of fortune on a massive scale
This human outflow, ... is the largest displacement of people in Latin American history
Venezuela is the most urgent humanitarian disaster in the Western Hemisphere, producing the largest exodus of refugees in the history of the Americas
Latin America is facing the largest refugee crisis in its history as hundreds of thousands of people flee Venezuela to escape severe economic hardship.
Venezuela has lost a tenth of its population in the past two years as people fled, even trekking across mountains, setting off Latin America's biggest ever refugee crisis.
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
some academics refer to the exodus in its totality as the Bolivarian diaspora
And as conditions in Venezuela worsen, the "Bolivarian Diaspora" is likely to keep growing. One measure of the desperation:the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum abroad tripled from 2015 to 2016.
Like the rest of the 'Bolivarian diaspora' dotted around the globe, it has been impossible to escape the asphyxiating drama
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
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