The Venezuelan Humanitarian Crisis, Out-Migration, and Household Change Among Venezuelans in Venezuela and Abroad

Abstract

International migration is increasingly characterized by the need to evade threats to survival. Nevertheless, demographic understandings of how families—rather than individuals alone—decide to migrate or separate in response to threats remain limited. Focusing on the recent humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, we analyze 2012–2016 data on Venezuelans in Venezuela and 2018–2020 data on UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)-registered Venezuelans in nine receiving countries to illuminate the evolution of threats Venezuelans sought to evade, how threat evasion transformed households away from previous norms, the selection of migrants into different receiving countries and household structures, and demographic disparities in migrants’ odds of reporting changes to their household because of specific migration-related processes (e.g., leaving someone in Venezuela, leaving someone in another country). Results underscore a simultaneous escalation of economic, safety, and political concerns that informed Venezuelans’ increasing intentions to out-migrate. Where Venezuelans migrated and who ended up in their households abroad varied by demographic background and migration experiences. Among UNHCR-registered Venezuelans, 43% left family members in Venezuela, and more than 10% left or were left behind by members in another country. Such household separations, however, were unevenly distributed across factors such as age, gender, and country of reception.