Can Venezuelan migrants be good for Colombia?

Speaking against the noise of a busy airport departure lounge, Doug Mercado is on his way home after a seven-month stint coordinating the World Food Programme (WFP)’s emergency response to the influx of Venezuelan migrants into Colombia. On his return to the United States, he will go back to teaching a course on humanitarian issues at Princeton University.

With a career spanning 28 years and experience in over twenty countries, Mercado is no stranger to airports — or masses of people driven from their homes by conflict, natural disasters or hunger.

“The causes might be different — war, an earthquake or, as in the case of Venezuela, the collapse of the economy — but in certain ways, humanitarian emergencies are very similar to each other. The bottom line is, people have lost most of what they had.”

What may be unique to the Venezuelan exodus, compared to other humanitarian contexts he has worked in, is that in the medium and long term it could markedly benefit the economy of the host country, Mercado says.

His views are supported by a recent study by the World Bank, which claims that the increase in investment and consumption derived from migration can boost economic growth for Colombia, once the initial challenges have been overcome. The report estimates that for every half a million Venezuelan migrants of working age, Colombian growth could accelerate by 0.2 percentage points.

Those pouring into Colombia — in numbers that are difficult to gauge exactly, as many are coming in through informal crossings along the 2,200-km long border — include highly skilled professionals: doctors, lawyers and engineers alongside people from more modest backgrounds.

“Venezuelans are showing outstanding resilience and adaptability — they have come to this country to build a new future for themselves and are eager to work,” he adds. Sharing a language and similar cultural backgrounds with the destination country also gives them better chances than most refugee or economic migrants have when they cross borders.

“Integration will take time,” Mercado acknowledges, “but the humanitarian assistance provided by WFP and others is helping bridge the gap, giving people some space to breathe as they settle in and look for work and rebuild their lives.”

Supporting community kitchens run by local partners, where newly-arrived Venezuelans can have hot meals twice a day, is one of the ways in which WFP is complementing the government’s efforts to accommodate migrants. WFP-supported school feeding programmes are helping Venezuelan children stay in the Colombian education system — a key to integration.

“We also provide vouchers people can use to buy food for three months after arrival,” Mercado explains. As there are no refugee camps in Colombia, migrants settle in cities and towns, rubbing shoulders with the locals. Voucher assistance is also extended to the most vulnerable members of the host communities, which helps ease inevitable tensions.

“Like everywhere else, there is some level of xenophobia, but the overall reception given to Venezuelans by Colombians is pretty positive, which will help them establish new lives in a new land,” Mercado says.

“Faced with one of the biggest mass movements of people in the history of Latin America, the Government of Colombia could have closed its borders, but it didn’t. In times when the journey of millions looking for a better life abroad crashes increasingly against walls — physical and metaphorical — of hostility, this sets an example for the world,” he continues. “As Venezuela generously welcomed Colombians fleeing armed violence over the past decades, Colombia is now returning the favour.”

And it is not just the government. Whether it’s by providing food, opening their homes to migrants, offering them rides along the journey or collecting clothes, civil society organizations, churches and individuals are extending a critical lifeline to migrants from Venezuela.

Asked about the reasons why people are leaving Venezuela, Mercado is adamant: the hardships people endure to reach Colombia — walking for miles, often with just the clothes on their backs, having left behind their homes, possessions and sometimes family members — reflect just how challenging daily life has become back home.

“With hyperinflation eating away at their savings and chopping their purchasing power by the day, they could no longer live the lives they had before. Many were skipping meals. I once asked a woman what the tipping point had been for her. She told me she decided to leave the day her daughter woke up hungry and she had no food to give her,” he says.

“Often times, hot meals from WFP’s community kitchens represent the best opportunity for many vulnerable migrants — especially women, children, the elderly or people with disabilities — to access nutritious food.”

For the luckier ones, however, things have already started to change. “Just before I left Colombia, I bought some cookies from a young man in the street,” recalls Mercado. “He told me he was a journalist and had been doing odd jobs to make ends meet, but had just received an offer to work at a local newspaper. By continuing to support the Colombian government in facing this situation, we can ensure this does not remain an isolated case,” he concludes.

Read more about WFP’s work with Venezuelan migrants in Colombia