colombia has taken a radical step to
grant
legal immigration status for up to 10
years
to nearly 1 million undocumented
venezuelans already living in the
country
this will allow migrants to work legally
as well as access healthcare and other
essential services
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this is a big move in the context of
recent migrant crisis
aside from syria venezuela's political
and economic turmoil
has prompted the biggest displacement of
people in recent years
the organization of american states
expects this number to rise to 7 million
this year
colombia has absorbed nearly 1.7 million
venezuelan migrants so far
that's around 3.7 percent of colombia's
population
another 3 million are in other countries
in the region
this makes colombia one of the biggest
hosts of migrants
around the world
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the colombian government had hoped to
receive more financial aid from the
international community
so far this has not happened the world
has
seen about more than six million syrians
who have fled their homes
in the case of venezuelans that number
is probably
bigger as of today than 5 million so the
numbers are quite similar
but when it comes to funding there is a
huge disparity and when we compute
in terms of each refugee how much the
international community has assisted
the hosting communities in the case of
syria we find
three thousand dollars per syrian
refugee given by the international
community
in the case of venezuelan refugees the
number is
less than 800 the colombian move has
been applauded abroad
but many colombians strongly oppose it
they feel that the country cannot afford
to take in
so many immigrants colombia already
faces domestic issues
it is far from wealthy and has struggled
with decades of armed conflict and
sky-high unemployment
the colombian government is hoping that
despite rising intolerance
the integration of venezuelans will
become easier now that they have legal
status
it is a risky experiment but if it
succeeds
it might be able to present lessons to
be learned far beyond colombia's borders
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