Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Peru will contribute $530 million to the country in 2024 in taxes; This figure can increase to 797 million dollars annually if migrants are regularized, according to a study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), presented on Thursday in Lima.
The study titled “Exploratory analysis of the fiscal and economic contribution of Venezuelan migration in Peru” shows that the contribution of Venezuelans will represent 1.35% of Peru’s total tax revenue this year, according to its projections.
Likewise, it highlights that 96.1% of the expenses of Venezuelans in the Andean country remain in that nation and only 3.9% are sent abroad as remittances.
The report concludes that if all Venezuelans in Peru had a regular immigration status and entered the formal labor market, their contribution would increase to almost 797 million dollars per year, which is equivalent to 2% of the country’s tax revenue.
“This study provides compelling evidence of how economic and social progress can be stimulated in host nations,” said Diego Beltrand, IOM Special Envoy for Regional Response to Migrant and Refugee Flows, in a statement from the entity. .
Peru has the second largest population of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the world, estimated at more than 1.6 million people, surpassed only by Colombia.
“This study demonstrates the importance of promoting migration regulation processes and access of the migrant population to the formal labor market to ensure adequate integration into the host country,” added Dorkas Soto, senior assistant for Monitoring and Evaluation for the IOM at the launch event. of the report.
Researcher David Licheri, from the consulting firm Equilibrium, who carried out the study with the IOM, highlighted the increase in Venezuelan migration to Peruvian territory in recent years.
“In Peru (in 2018) there were 33,000 Venezuelan people in the country. Today we are at 1,660,000. From 2018 to 2019, around 700,000 people entered the border. If we put it at a daily figure, around 2,000 people are passing by on average,” he said, in the presentation of the study.
The data show that the Venezuelan migrant population has a professional profile, since 49.3% have higher technical and/or university education. However, they work in informal jobs. Furthermore, only 9.5% work in their field of expertise, mainly due to obstacles in validating their certifications. Less than 10% were successful in this process.
Likewise, 74.4% of Venezuelan migrants in Peru have jobs, but only 28.4% of employees have a stable formal job.
Other studies in Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic and Panama support these conclusions. In Colombia, for example, Venezuelans contributed 529.1 million dollars in 2023, according to this research.
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