Lima as a Welcoming City for Venezuelan Migrants? Transformations, Tensions, and Challenges in a New Urban Destination

Abstract

Peru and especially the capital, Lima, is one of the principal destinations for Venezuelan migrants. This migratory phenomenon has made this urban space more diverse, dynamic, and complex, in a context in which Lima often operated as a place of exclusion for different groups. At the same time that the Venezuelan population arrived in Peru, a national migration policy began to emerge that sought to respond to immigration from a human rights perspective. This policy underwent numerous changes and setbacks in a very short time. Although the asylum legislation provides guarantees, few Venezuelan are recognized as refugees and there have been a series of restrictions on the right to asylum over the last year. Without a comprehensive urban policy that includes the migrant population, municipal authorities have reacted to these new migration patterns in various and sometimes contradictory ways. This chapter aims to analyze these local policies with respect to the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of the migrant population in the city of Lima through the lens of national migration and asylum policies.