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

Abstract

With over 5 million Venezuelans fleeing their home country, Latin America is facing the largest migration crisis in its history. Colombia, Peru, and Chile host the largest numbers of Venezuelan migrants in the region. Each country has responded differently to the crisis in terms of the provision of education. Venezuelan migrants attempting to enter the primary, secondary, and higher education systems encounter a variety of barriers, from struggles with documentation, to limited availability of spaces in schools, to cultural barriers and xenophobia. This paper examines the distinct educational policy responses to Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. It begins by contextualizing the current crisis through a sociopolitical and economic analysis of the origins of the Venezuelan migration phenomenon. Venezuelans are not officially and legally recognized as refugees by the UNHCR. Refugee status is considered on a case-by-case basis at the country level. The regional coordinating bodies tasked with promoting safe, orderly, and legal migration of Venezuelans to host countries have given uneven attention to education. The paper examines each country's response to Venezuelan migrants from a human rights perspective. It provides sociopolitical context and discusses the specific educational offerings from the primary to tertiary levels in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. It considers alternative or flexible education models, second shift schools, access to school transportation and feeding programs, and teacher training opportunities that cater to the growing migrant population. It explores barriers to entry into the educational system, including documentation challenges due to legal and enrollment requirements, constraints on the host countries’ education systems, and discrimination due to lack of intercultural training and xenophobia. It also discusses challenges related to the quality of the educational opportunities for Venezuelan migrant children, and the specific needs of these children. The paper considers several ideas to protect Venezuelan migrants’ rights to an education and to strengthen their integration. Finally, it offers recommendations on sustainable education solutions for Venezuelan migrants at all levels in the three countries. These recommendations include improving information sharing, addressing structural bottlenecks to school enrollment, and expanding pathways (existing and complementary) to higher education.

Facilitadores y obstaculizadores de la retención escolar de estudiantes migrantes en Chile: experiencias de cuatro escuelas de Valparaíso

“…Although the literature already described the role played by individual attitudes (Makarova & Herzog, 2013;Caqueo et al, 2021), the involvement of the family (Lea, 2012) and the actions that the school may take in the education of migrant students (Faas, et al, 2015), the findings of this study indicate that educational institutions not only are aware of their strengths but also that these are fundamental to retain students. However, after highlighting the disposition of students, families and establishments, it is curious that educational institutions did not mention measures such as the Provisional School Identifier (in Spanish, IPE), which corresponds to a single number provided by the Ministry of Education of Chile that allows migrant students-with illegal status-to access the school system and have the same rights as national students (Summers et al, 2022). In other words, the discourse of the four studied schools emphasizes disposition, as the state and specifically the Ministry of Education would not provide the necessary, and mostly effective, support to protect migrant children and adolescents.…”

“…Conversely, regarding retention barriers, there is consensus on the exclusion scenarios faced by migrants, among which are poverty and vulnerability (Archambault et al, 2017;Free et al, 2014), discrimination practices, stigmatization, and racism (Caqueo et al, 2019;Céspedes et al, 2019;Pavez et al, 2019;Segovia & Rendón, 2020), in addition to administrative and bureaucratic problems that not only hamper their access to educational establishments but also the granting of some benefits such as food aid and scholarships (Joiko, 2019;Summers et al, 2022), among others.…”

Covid-19 a migranci we współczesnym świecie: analiza polityk migracyjnych wobec pandemii

“…Szacuje się, że od początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych XX wieku do traktatu pokojowego z 2016 roku, kończącego (oficjalnie) wojnę domową, setki tysięcy Kolumbijczyków uciekało przed konfliktem do Wenezueli. W rezultacie około 400 tysięcy osób ma podwójne -wenezuelskie i kolumbijskie -obywatelstwo (Summers et al, 2022). Pozytywne nastawienie do Wenezuelczyków jest również zauważalne w społeczeństwie kolumbijskim.…”

Refugees’ experiences with online higher education: Impact and implications through the pandemic

“…Displacement leaves adult refugees "particularly vulnerable" (Cerna, 2019, p. 4), and "super-disadvantaged" (Lambrechts, 2020, p. 803) in having to face personal, structural, financial, informational, procedural, and institutional barriers in their host countries (Khan-Gökkaya & Mösko, 2021;Webb et al, 2021). An example of this was found through an Equilibrium CenDe (2020) survey of Venezuelan immigrant students studying in Peru, where 40 per cent were not participating in the Peruvian Ministry of Education's at-home study option for lack of sufficient technology to successfully participate (Summers et al, 2022).…”