Education as an Opportunity for Integration: Assessing Colombia, Peru, and Chile’s Educational Responses to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

• In Event: Schooling and Rethinking Migrant Integration: Perspectives and Possibilities

Proposal

Objectives/Purposes
As of June 2021, more than 5.6 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela had left the country (R4V 2021a) due to the ongoing and escalating political and economic crises (Chaves-Gonzalez and Echeverria-Estrada 2020), making it the world’s second worst migration crisis after Syria. Among displaced Venezuelans, 4.6 million have fled to other Latin American and Caribbean countries (R4V 2021a; UNHCR, 2021). Currently, Colombia hosts approximately 40 percent of those migrants (estimated at 1.7 million) (R4V 2021a; Senate Foreign Relations Committee 2020), followed by Peru (estimated one million) (R4V 2021a), and Chile (457,324) (Department of Foreigners and Migration (DEM) 2020; R4V 2021a).

Across each of these contexts, however, refugees, asylees, and at-risk migrants face a variety of barriers, including language and cultural differences, lack of documentation or information, and difficult visa requirements, when entering primary, secondary, and/or tertiary education in a host country (Dryden-Peterson 2012; Lowe 2020; International Refugee Assistance Project 2020). Host countries in the Latin American region receive extremely limited international attention or financial support, a problem which has been exacerbated by the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic (Chamie 2020). There is an urgent need to analyze educational policy, fill-in existing research gaps regarding educational offerings for Venezuelan migrants in Latin America, and reimagine integration policies, especially in the host countries receiving the most migrants, to uphold these migrants’ rights and protect their human security.

In this presentation, we will argue that Colombia, Peru, and Chile can protect Venezuelan migrants’ human rights and support integration efforts in receiving communities by pursuing durable, long-term solutions for the Venezuelan migrant population in terms of their access to all levels of education. We draw on a detailed comparative study of a wide range of existing data, policies, and discussions in the academic research literature, as well as credible media reporting, to outline recommendations centered on concrete action steps policy makers should take.

Perspectives
Lack of global recognition, attention, and funding towards the region explains, in part, why Latin American countries have engaged in a more limited response to the Venezuelan migration crisis, especially in terms of educational policy and support for migrant students (R4V 2021c). In general, the region does not have clear policies regarding the incorporation of migrants into the education system, resulting in misinformation or limited information dissemination to new arrivals, as well as difficulties enrolling children in schools. As a result, across preschool through higher education contexts, Venezuelan migrant students face lower levels of school enrollment, have poorer educational attainment (Migration Policy Institute 2020; R4V 2021c), and experience higher risks of school desertion (Padrón 2020). Limited economic and educational opportunities impede Venezuelans’ ability to improve their human development capacity and capabilities, an important step towards equipping the next generation of Venezuelans with the necessary skills to rebuild the country post-crisis and so create more secure and sustainable conditions there.

Methods/Techniques/Modes of Inquiry
This presentation will look comparatively at three countries that have been identified as individual cases—Columbia, Peru, and Chile—and their responses to the increasing volume of Venezuelan migration. Our analysis is based on an extensive review of existing discussions in scholarly research literature and media reporting as the situation of Venezuelan refugees has developed, starting with the Chavez and Maduro regimes, and leading to the present day unprecedented global migrant crisis reaching across Latin America. We will conclude the presentation with recommendations for educational policy makers looking forward.

Data sources/Evidence/Objects or Materials
Several regional forums for dialogue, such as the Quito meetings (Borg 2020) and the Lima Group (Government of Canada 2021), as well as coordinating bodies, such as the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform (R4V 2021b) which publishes the annual Refugee Migrant Response Plan (RMRP), exist to tackle challenges across Latin America related to hosting Venezuelan migrants (Seelke et al. 2020). Using data from these organizations, government legislation, along with scholarship from academic researchers and reliable media reporting, our presentation will examine how the scope and comprehensiveness of the region’s response, monitoring, and implementation efforts are severely hampered without necessary international funding and support.

Results/Substantial conclusions/warrants for arguments/POV
The United States has continued to enforce sanctions and limitations on the degree of aid that can be provided to Venezuela, which has only exacerbated the humanitarian crisis and led to even greater migration (Oliveros 2020). Until international actors either intervene and provide sufficient aid to Venezuela, or the political and economic situation in the country improves, citizens will continue to flee to surrounding nations. This presentation argues that Colombia, Peru, and Chile need durable, long-term solutions in place in order to provide adequate services and necessities to Venezuelans, especially in terms of education provision.

The kinds of solutions that have a chance to improve access to education in Colombia, Peru, and Chile for Venezuelan migrants at the national level include complementary pathways of admission, improved information sharing about, infrastructure in, and integration into the school system, and efforts to fight the spread of xenophobia. Special provisions in immigration policies, flexible educational admissions policies, and greater regional attention towards educating Venezuelan migrants are all important steps towards facilitating access.

Scholarly and social significance of the work
Venezuela’s crisis is likely to continue worsening in the wake of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, signaling the heightened urgency of shifting regional migration responses from short-term planning towards long-term, development-oriented educational policy (Correa Vargas 2020). Education is a human right that must be guaranteed to all, yet Latin American countries have fallen short in providing Venezuelan migrants with access to quality education in fulfilment of migrants’ rights and ensuring their ability to integrate into receiving communities (Padrón 2020).

Looking beyond the region to responses to the Central American, Syrian, and other crises offers lessons and opportunities for collaboration in the future. These steps, in tandem with policy makers recommendations, will ensure that local, national, and regional actors address Venezuelan migrants’ educational challenges in a more systematic and holistic way to ensure safe migration, protection of rights, and local integration.

Authors

• Katharine Claire Summers, Graduate Student/George Washington University

• Jessica Marie Crist, The George Washington University

• Bernhard T Streitwieser, George Washington University