With an estimated 7.7 million Venezuelans on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region is experiencing one of the most important migratory movements of its history. Despite the importance of this exodus, Venezuelan migration, as south-south migration broadly, has been under-researched in Anglophone human geography and migration studies. And while emerging studies of borders and bordering in South America has been carried, current work lacks a detailed engagement with the experiences of migrants traversing, and making sense of, such diverse bordering regimes and practices.
My research aims to understand how Venezuelan migrants compose their itineraries in a context of (re)bordering in South America and particularly in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The three countries represent the most important corridor for Venezuelan migrants to the South and to the North of the continent and are traditionally classified as transit and destination countries. The overall study will highlight the importance of analysing migrants’ practices to rethink bordering processes in South America. My doctoral research will contribute an original empirical analysis of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to burgeoning research on South-South migration in Anglophone literature. The project’s focus on migrant itineraries will advance critical debates on geographies of migration, immobility, mobility and border studies, migrant decision-making, and spaces of transit in an understudied geographical area.
