Venezuelan Migrants’ Resilience Strategies and Cultural Integration: A View from Chile

Abstract

There has been a substantial influx of legal and irregular Venezuelan migrants into Chile in recent years, the number of whom was estimated as of May 2024 to be 532.700. They represent 32.8% of total migrants and the majority of foreign residents. Their expectations in migration were based on the global characterisation of Chile as an ‘oasis’ in Latin America. They were looking for either mere survival – given the socioeconomic conditions and violence prevailing in Venezuela – or stability and a better standard of living. The present paper develops a qualitative analysis of their resilience capacity and social adaptation strategies during resettlement. Ten in-depth face-to-face interviews were carried out divided by gender and class. Interviewees’ narratives were analysed with an eye to how they describe their networks and relationships, the personal characteristics that favour their integration, their affinities and differences with the host country’s cultural trends, and their fears of losing their culture of origin, as well as the possibilities of developing a new life project in Chile. The results show that their resilience patterns are mostly conservative and endurance oriented, though with some divergence. This individualistic component overlaps with a strong reliance on their families and close relationships, mostly among compatriots. However, none of them belong to migrant organisations that can defend their rights, despite their living in a ‘hyper neoliberal’ country that offers little state support for the implementation of adequate policies that could facilitate their social integration.