Venezuelan Refugees May Help Liberalize Latin America’s Closed Economies
September 25, 2019 in Economics
By Gabriela Calderon de Burgos, Alex Nowrasteh
Gabriela Calderon de Burgos and Alex Nowrasteh
Venezuela is at the heart of the worst refugee crisis the world has faced since the Syrian civil war, which in 2017 culminated with an exodus of more than 6 million Syrians. Now, about 4.3 million Venezuelans—equal to 15 percent of those who remain in that country—have fled the ongoing economic and political collapse of their homeland. The United Nations projects that the number could rise to 5.4 million by the end of the year. Many have left legally as immigrants. Others are refugees and asylum-seekers. Still others are taking their chances crossing illegally.
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Latin American countries have responded to the influx in increasingly harsh ways. After an initial open-door policy toward Venezuelan refugees, Ecuador and Peru imposed new border controls. Juan Sebastián Roldán, an Ecuadorian government official, claimed that his government’s new restrictions reduced the inflow from 2,000 daily crossings in August to about 50. And at the beginning of September, Peruvian Foreign Minister Néstor Popolizio claimed that Venezuelan migration had fallen by 90 percent since new controls were implemented in mid-June.
Ecuador’s and Peru’s restrictive policies will only push Venezuelans into making dangerous illegal crossings. And given the extent of this crisis, rather than trying to make the problem go away, it is time for Latin American countries to start planning how they’ll accommodate Venezuelans over the long term. Venezuelans need the opportunity to work, both to support themselves and to boost the economies of the countries they’re living in. Ultimately, accommodating these exiles will require that the host countries liberalize their economies so that they are able to absorb the new arrivals.
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Recent economic research shows that it can be done. In new academic papers, one of the authors of this piece, along with other researchers, examined how Israel and Jordan adapted to separate massive refugee surges in the 1990s. In response, both countries were able to open their economies by doing things like lowering trade barriers, securing property rights, and reducing regulations.
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Source: OP-EDS
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