RESEARCH PROJECT NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER OPUS SCHEME

Migration Crisis in Latin America – coping and adaptation strategies of Venezuelan migrants and their families and the risk of global migration crisis [MICLACAS]

Motivation

In recent years more than 7 millions of Venezuelans have fled their country escaping political, economic, and social hardships and extreme insecurity. The ongoing migrant crisis is already the largest ever recorded in Latin America. Such a situation has become a headache for neighboring countries which have accepted the bulk of migrants from Venezuela. However not much attention has been paid to that crisis in other parts of the world so far.

Objectives

The main goal of our study is the analysis of the coping and adaptation strategies of Venezuelans in various geographic locations: origin (Venezuela), near-destination (Peru), and distant-destination (Europe). We want to get a deeper understanding of the migration process and whether the contemporary coping tactics of Venezuelans lead to a more long-term settlement in new near-destinations, or they are just short-term survival tactics aimed at accumulation of resources needed to finance subsequent re-emigration into more attractive destinations. Furthermore, we want to establish if the ongoing migrant crisis in Latin America could have consequences for other parts of the world creating a global migration crisis.

Migration and its possible futures are issues of major concern in contemporary debates of academics, policymakers, and the general public. However, there is still not enough in-depth research contributing to our understanding and managing of this complex process. Relation of coping, adaptation, and migration is also understudied in current scientific literature. Moreover, bearing in mind that Venezuelan crisis is the largest that ever occurred in Latin America, we expect that consequences would soon be felt also outside of the region. That is why we find our research topic relevant and necessary to address.

Work plan

Research agenda of our study is divided into several parts. Firstly, we performed analysis of secondary sources and conducted in-depth interviews with experts from NGOs and local authorities. This part allowed us to set a framework for subsequent stages. Then, we organized a quantitative part of the research based on surveying Venezuelans living in Peru and Peruvians living in neighborhoods with a large number of Venezuelans. Third part is a classic ethnographic fieldwork covering in-depth interviews with Venezuelans in Peru, Peruvian neighbors of Venezuelan immigrants, and families of immigrants residing in Peru who stayed in Venezuela. Simultaneously, we will conduct interviews with Venezuelans living in Europe. The climax of our research is an analysis of obtained quantitative and qualitative material through which we will gain answers to research questions.

Expected results

Today, more than ever, we need to demystify migration and produce a more accurate and understandable picture of this complex phenomenon. One of the expected results of our project is to provide the knowledge that will advance the study of migration and its consequences. During our research we would like to verify if Venezuelan crisis can trigger the next global migration crisis in the nearest future. The other important result is to better understand how migrants cope with challenges of migration and integration from the perspective of problem solving and mental stress caused by the process in origin, transit and destination countries. We would also like to further develop methodology applied in the field of migration studies and other disciplines with a multidisciplinary and mixed method approach and a new multi-dimensional perspective.

In our interdisciplinary team we have researchers from Poland, Venezuela and Peru

  • Prof. Marcin Stonawski
  • Prof. Jan Brzozowski
  • Karolina Sobczak-Szelc Ph.D.
  • Silvana Goméz Ph.D.
  • Katarzyna Górska Ph.D.
  • Agnieszka Olter-Castillo Ph.D.(c)
  • Wojciech Ganczarek