UN: Venezuelan migration in Latin America contributed over $10.6 billion

Panama.- Far from being a burden on host nations, the millions of Venezuelan migrants established in Latin America and the Caribbean are "an engine of development", contributing with their consumption more than 10.6 billion dollars annually, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) prior to International Migrants Day.

The 'Analysis of the Fiscal and Economic Contribution of Venezuelan Migration' reveals how 5.7 million migrants in eight countries of the region - Colombia, Peru, Chile, Panama, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Aruba - have become an active agent of consumption, investment and tax collection, boosting key sectors such as housing, food or services. "We are convinced from IOM that migration is a driver of development, but we wanted to provide empirical information for the positive narrative of migration", and it was with that objective that this study was born, explained to EFE Julio Croci, regional liaison and policy officer of this United Nations agency and coordinator of the report.

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Among the findings, "the most relevant" was that the consumption of these more than 5 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees in these eight countries - out of a total of 6.2 million who are in the region - has contributed more than 10.6 billion dollars, remarked the Argentinian Croci from the IOM regional headquarters in Panama. In tax payments, fees, more than 1.8 billion dollars, with very important peaks like Colombia and Peru, with more than 500 million in contributions, and in Chile with more than 400, also showing "the importance of regularization and integration processes", he details, by allowing the migrant to open a company or a bank account, thus increasing consumption and contribution in the host country. And it is that many Latin American and Caribbean governments have made "great efforts in regularization programs", having allowed more than 60% of migrants to access "a migration regularization system or recognition or are in the process of applying for asylum, but there is 40% that still haven't", so there is still the possibility that that contribution will increase. As part of this regularization, a key factor is the validation of qualifications, with a Venezuelan migration also with a good educational level, with positive experiences in which this process was accelerated such as Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Ecuador or Argentina. In the case of the latter, Croci affirms, there is the association of Venezuelan doctors that has collaborated with more than 3,500 doctors who today work in the Argentine health system. "What we have seen, and the study also analyzes, is that migration in general is not a labor competition. It is a sum of experiences, of possibilities," underlines the IOM official. Thus, in the year 2016-2017, for example, 30% of medical residencies in Argentina remained vacant, explains Croci, because a large part of the local doctors did not want to go to remote places. We recommend reading: https://deultimominuto.net/internacionales/trump-venezuela-quito-petrolero/ "And that began to be covered with foreign doctors who validated their degrees. And you don't know, I lived that experience, the joy that after 30 years without having a doctor in a rural town, the doctor arrives. And that person was already integrated on the second day," he relates.

Support for entrepreneurs

There are also "some numbers that amaze", such as those from Panama, where in the last 10 years there have been more than 1.8 billion dollars of private investment, only from Venezuela, which generate 50,000 jobs, of which 40,000 are for Panamanians, something that is easily seen in restaurants or shops. "This is what's interesting, how migration generates companies, generates entrepreneurship, generates work, not only for the migrants themselves, but also for the host community," Croci points out. From IOM, these small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are being supported, accompanying them to international trade fairs to give them the "possibility of growth, of networking", with iconic examples such as that of the Venezuelan migrant María Dorta in Peru, where she launched her ecological diaper business. Dorta, who has his home-workshop in northern Lima, explained to EFE that he chose to name his diaper brand 'Kuyaiky Wawa' ('I love you, baby', in Quechua), because that's how he heard mothers and grandmothers call their babies, and he thought it could help in its acceptance in Peru after experiencing episodes of xenophobia. You may be interested in: https://deultimominuto.net/internacionales/camara-baja-eeuu-rechaza-mociones/ For Croci, stories like this serve to combat discrimination and xenophobia, they help to "break down those walls of ignorance and understand the other, and understand that I can be in that same place." "How many countries (...) said, 'impossible to think we will migrate, they are coming, we are not leaving.' And today, however, the reality is different," he warns.