John Sánchez has not seen his wife and daughters for six years. This 29-year-old man left Venezuela at the height of the economic crisis along with 6.8 million other people, who left their homes with hearts full of hope.
John planned to get a good job and send money home to feed his family and eventually earn enough to bring them to live with him in the Dominican Republic, where he settled.
But he had never imagined how difficult it would be to be undocumented, which made earning a living even more difficult, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19. Barely if he could support himself on what he earned doing deals. After six years of precarious work, John is among the nearly 100,000 irregular migrants from Venezuela in the Dominican Republic who have received regularization visas.
historical agreements
“My visa is my license to dream; now I will be able to establish myself with greater security in this country and find a formal job in the marketing industry where I can apply my skills and university studies. Everything will change,” he tells UN News, explaining that his priority is to send money home to feed his family and eventually reunite with them.
The historic Special Stay Agreements of the Dominican Republic, supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), provide a lifeline to migrants from Venezuela, allowing them access to decent work, health care and education, thanks to their incorporation into the social security system and offer them the possibility of having bank accounts.
The Dominican Republic is the first receiving country for the population of Venezuela in the Caribbean, with more than 115,000 people who have sought new opportunities in the country.
The regularization process includes three stages. The first is the application for extension of stay, visa and residence permit. As of April 2020, more than 42,000 Venezuelans have registered to extend their stay, and as of September 2022, more than 21,000 had received their work visa. Thousands of other people are still in one of the three stages of the aforementioned plan.
Turning hope into reality
Yuly Gorrín is a 46-year-old Venezuelan entrepreneur who since 2018 has worked selling food, offering white corn flour pancakes popularly known as arepas, in addition to other traditional Venezuelan foods.
“For a migrant, living without documents is living like a ghost.”
After four years, she feels a certain relief because she is close to accessing her regularization visa, which for her is permission to dream that will allow you to take your business to another level far beyond what you would have been able to with an irregular status.
“Regularization is vital, because I don’t have access to almost anything without it. Without proper documentation, I cannot sell my culinary products to shops and supermarkets,” says Yuly, whose small business received a boost from the UN agency through “seed capital” and business advice.
With the support of IOM, eight organizations in Venezuela have created orientation centers known as the “Free Orientation Windows”, where more than 15,000 registered people have already received information about the process, orientation and documentation. The promoters and coordinators of each center – who are mostly Venezuelan migrants – have studied the mechanism and guide the group so that they can receive their extensions and visas, making the process a unique experience.
“The idea of this process is that a migrant helps another migrant. My job as a Venezuelan is to guide other compatriots and make them feel as if they were at home,” says Yuleima Sarraga, an educational promoter from Caracas who now carries out the same activity at the orientation center in Santo Domingo, one of the places with increased number of people asking for help with their applications.
Eight Venezuelan migrant organizations located throughout the centers help spread information about equality in migrant communities in the country through “Globalízate radio”, an initiative led by the Dominican government.
A role model for the world?
The regularization of Venezuelan migrants and refugees is a crucial issue for host countries, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that is home to the largest number of displaced people: 5.8 of the 6.8 million scattered throughout the world.
Several countries are promoting the inclusion of Venezuelans seeking to remain in their host communities, providing solutions and hope to thousands of migrants and sending an important message for reintegration in receiving countries.
The response of Latin America and the Caribbean to the Venezuelans could serve as an example of solidarity for other countries. Various initiatives in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and other countries are facilitating documentation and seeking solutions for regularization, in addition to offering protection for the Venezuelan population through different instruments in their national legislation.
A path, but not a destination
Such instruments include coordination platforms between regional governments that capitalize on the technical expertise of non-governmental organizations and the United Nations. Nevertheless, regularization is a path, not a destination. To reach the destination of successful integration, it is necessary to have the uninterrupted support of the international community.
“Migration is extremely beneficial and positive for migrants and host communities. If managed in an orderly, safe and regular manner, it can be an element of development in the host communities and improve conditions related to income”, said Josué Gastelbondo, head of the Office of the International Organization for Migration in the Dominican Republic. Dominican.
Like John, the migrants in Venezuela are optimistic about the future. His dream of regularization has come true and he shows his visa with great emotion; he sees a world of opportunities and paths opening up. He will now be able to access a legal job and dream of embracing his wife and daughters again.
“Now that I have my visa, all I can think about is being with my family and bringing them with me to start a new and better life here,” he says.
This story was written by Gema Cortés, from the IOM Press Unit, Office of the Special Envoy for the Regional Response to the Situation in Venezuela.
