More than 5 million refugees and migrants have fled the ongoing political and economic strife in Venezuela, with more than 4.3 million of them moving to other Latin American and Caribbean countries. This large-scale movement that began in 2015 has presented both integration and migration policy challenges for neighboring governments, and the COVID-19 pandemic has added the challenge of managing a public-health crisis while also addressing the needs of displaced Venezuelans and the communities in which they live.

The challenges facing the region have made the need for timely and accurate data even more pressing, in order to effectively plan and implement policies that respond to rapidly evolving trends. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) through its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) collects data on migrants’ demographics, economic activities, labor market participation, health conditions, access to health services, trip details, and challenges encountered while travelling. Using this first-hand information, MPI researchers have compiled a regional profile of Venezuelan migrants and refugees across 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries, shedding light on country-to-country variations in the characteristics of these migrants and refugees and their experiences as they travel and set up a new life in another country.

Join this webinar where leading experts from the region discuss the profile of Venezuelan migrants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. The conversation will explore these migrants’ needs, shifts in mobility patterns, the diverse policy instruments countries have designed to manage these flows, and important policy implications for future planning, particularly in the context of the global coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout on Venezuelan migrants, refugees and host communities.