Nowadays, Xenophobia has been an ongoing issue in many countries. Venezuelans have been one of the most common victims in this situations, most commonly, in Latin America.
Almost 2 million Venezuelans are living outside the country. The political and economic situation that the country is facing, provoke Venezuelans to leave and find a better quality of life. Hyperinflation has made the currency worthless, and malnutrition is now endemic. There is no better choice than leave.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse are crowding into cities in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and throughout the region. Venezuelans rushed to the border bridges between Brazil and Colombia, and crowds in long queues stretched throughout the day. Walking thousands of kilometers to find their final destination and better life.
Many circumstances have changed people’s mentality about Venezuelans. Documentation has been one of the biggest struggle in the crisis because it has become virtually impossible to get basic documents like passports inside Venezuela.
At the same time, Venezuelans have faced increased xenophobic attacks and attitudes. A recent attack where situated in Peru, ”Nearly 75 percent of Peruvians say they’re opposed to Venezuelan migration, citing fears of increased crime and migrants taking their jobs, according to one poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies.” (Source: Al Jazeera).
The xenophobia that Venezuelans face is constant, their everyday lives are based on discrimination and exposed to live in low circumstances. It is constant to see, how young professionals move to another country to work in a place where they get paid minimum salary and not even specialized in their area, and some of them even reside in the streets.
The world has to raise awareness and understand that we all have the same rights. The fact that a group of courage people moved to another country to start over, it is something that people should respect and admire.
