The Challenges of Settlement and Integration: Exploring Canada’s Response to Venezuelan Migration

The Venezuelan migrant crisis has brought major socioeconomic challenges for countries in South America, and it has sparked public debates on immigration policies, xenophobia, and discrimination. Venezuelan migration to Central and North America has considerably increased over the last 5 years. Since 2017, the community of Venezuelan migrants, refugees, and asylum claimants has notably grown in Canada’s major and medium-size cities. Although Canada’s response has focused more on providing financial support to host countries in South America and less on providing culturally focused settlement alternatives in Canada, these communities have found ways to promote Venezuelan migrants’ social and economic integration through the creation of nonprofit and community-based initiatives. In this article, we explore perspectives and opinions from 35 Venezuelan community leaders and nonprofit representatives regarding the needs and challenges of the Venezuelan newcomer and refugee population in five Canadian cities as well as their struggle for community engagement and political participation in the domestic context. The analysis sheds light on how Venezuelan immigrants have navigated the complexities of migration in North America and how they have faced the difficulties of coming from a country with an immigration rather than an emmigration history.