Venezuelans Leave Colombia for U.S.
Victor Rojas received a residency permit in Colombia, but his goal is to migrate to the United States or Europe.
A visa program can’t extinguish the ‘American dream.’
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Food shortages caused by Venezuela’s economic collapse pushed Victor Rojas onto a bus and across the border to Colombia. He quickly went from studying music at a university in Caracas and performing in orchestras to playing violin for tips on the streets of Bogotá.
But within months of arriving, he received a special residency permit meant to address a surge of Venezuelan migrants. Eventually, his street performances led to jobs at weddings and graduations, and the permit allowed him to formalize his growing business and gain an economic toehold.
The permit program, created by Colombia in 2021 and supported by the United States, was hailed as innovative and generous, particularly for a country with little experience with mass migration flows, and was seen as a potential model for largescale displacement in other regions.
In the United States, which contributed more than $12 million to the program, the effort came to be seen by policymakers as one way to address the migration crisis at the U.S. border.
The program, announced by Colombia’s president then, Iván Duque, a conservative ally of the United States, grants temporary protected status to nearly all Venezuelans in Colombia, including many without photo identification. It allowed them to live and work there legally for 10 years.
Mr. Rojas, 26, said his residency status “changed absolutely everything.”
“I had access to health care, I had access to banks,” he added.
By one measure, the program has been a major success: More than two million Venezuelans have registered for Colombian residency.
But by other measures, the policy is falling short, and many Venezuelans have left Colombia bound for the United States, contributing to a record number of Venezuelans who arrived at the U.S. border last year.
Although no data is available on the number of Venezuelans with a Colombian permit who have migrated, many say they abandoned Colombia because they could not earn enough to support their families.
There have been some difficulties with the program. Reaching applicants in rural areas without internet access or documentation has been difficult, said Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at Rosario University in Bogotá who has studied the permit program. Many employers, bank workers and health care providers do not recognize the permit, he added.
Long delays have also hindered the program. While 2.5 million Venezuelans have registered for the permit, less than 1.6 million have received one.
Experts cite these shortcomings as contributing to Venezuelans’ choosing to leave Colombia. But many Venezuelans say the main reasons are low wages, lack of upward mobility and high inflation.
“They still believe in the American dream,” said Ligia Bolívar, a sociologist from Venezuela based in Bogotá.
In Cedritos, a neighborhood in north Bogotá, a group of delivery workers from Venezuela all said they had gotten temporary permits but had dreams of living elsewhere. They had worked in car washes, fast food restaurants and bars, earning only enough to scrape by.
Laura Gil, Colombia’s vice minister for multilateral affairs, said that without more investment from the United States to improve living conditions in Colombia, Venezuelans will continue to leave.
Mr. Rojas said he was “extremely grateful” to the Colombian government. Still, his goal has always been the United States or Europe. He does not know when or to where he will migrate, but he is undeterred. Like many migrants, he said that uprooting his life once made it easier to do it again.
“Migrating made me feel free because I felt that in Venezuela, I had already lost everything,” Mr. Rojas said. “I’m not afraid of that anymore because I realized that you can be reborn.”