Betting on Legality: Latin American and Caribbean Responses to the Venezuelan Displacement Crisis
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Highlights
Latin American and Caribbean countries granted legal status to an estimated 50 - 75 percent of displaced Venezuelans by 2022, a rare bet on inclusion.
- Between 2016 and 2022, more than 7 million Venezuelans fled their country; around 6.4 million settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, where most receiving countries improvised pragmatic legal status responses through multiple channels.
- An estimated 50 - 75 percent of displaced Venezuelans obtained some legal status in the 15 main receiving countries; Colombia was the most ambitious, offering ten-year temporary protection with a path to permanent residency.
- Most countries guaranteed access to primary and secondary education and emergency health care regardless of status. Ecuador stood out by providing full access to both services for all Venezuelans, irrespective of legal status.
- Yet key gaps remain: between 25 and 50 percent of Venezuelans lack legal status, many temporary permits do not lead to permanency, and visa requirements introduced since 2016 fueled irregular entry and complicated family reunification.
More than half, and as many as two-thirds, of the estimated 6.4 million displaced Venezuelans who have settled in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2016 have been granted legal status in their host country. Most of the receiving countries in the region have responded with pragmatic measures that offer some form of legal status as well as the right to access the labor market, basic education, and emergency health care. The measures implemented are uneven and often not fully institutionalized, but they have been surprisingly generalized for a region with limited experience with large-scale immigration.
This report explores the response to Venezuelan displacement in the 15 principal host countries in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2016 and 2022. It examines the reach of different mechanisms for providing legal status and humanitarian protection—asylum systems, mobility and residence agreements, regular visas, and regularization campaigns that offer temporary status—and offers estimates of the share of Venezuelans in each country who have obtained legal status.
The report also considers the trend of governments coupling measures to provide legal status with new visa requirements that have made it increasingly difficult for more Venezuelans to arrive, pushing some into irregular migration channels. Finally, the report looks at variations in Venezuelans’ access to education and health care across the 15 countries.
Para leer este reporte en español, haga clic aquí.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Mechanisms to Provide Humanitarian Protection and Legal Status
A. Providing Refugee Protection through Asylum Systems
B. Offering Legal Status through Mobility and Residence Agreements
C. Facilitating Access to Regular Residence Visas
D. Ensuring Legal Status through Temporary Status Measures
E. Understanding the Reach of Efforts to Provide Legal Status
3 Imposing Entry Requirements
4 Ensuring Access to Education and Health Care
5 Conclusions and Prospects for the Future
Latin America and Caribbean Initiative
The Initiative combines rigorous research with direct engagement of governments, institutions, and stakeholders to help build orderly, rights-respecting migration systems across one of the world's most dynamic migration regions.
About the Global Program
The Global Program bridges policy advice, research, and candid dialogue to design effective migration policies, drawing on global evidence and anticipating the forces reshaping how people move.
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