Post-conflict and gender. Venezuelan migrant women achieving integration in the Colombian Border
Abstract:
This study on Venezuelan migration to post-conflict Colombia aims to explain how the reconstruction from conflict and forced migration processes have impacted women. It poses the question of how reconstruction approaches of Colombian and other Latin American civil society groups of women apply to Venezuelan migrant women in the border. Colombia hosts roughly 2 million Venezuelan migrants who have stayed despite the persistent violence caused partially by the turmoil of its politics in the post- conflict aftermath. Using testimonial accounts, the dissertation examines the distinct experiences of Venezuelan migrant women in the borderlands of Colombia. It reveals a blending of crises as the source of support networks. The imminent need to provide humanitarian assistance transformed in the creation of a system that opens the way to integration. From the emergency declaration, addendums to the law for Venezuelans to access the health care system to the adaptation for economic dynamics, women migrants find in Colombia a space for restart. Feasible peace processes in the region have gendered roots. This study claims that despite the recrudescence of violence in Colombia, Venezuelan migrants have an immaterial connection based on historic social, cultural roots that make it their country of preference over other border countries. Findings demonstrate there was an empirical gap in identifying one of the major triggers of the migration crisis. The binational tensions of August 2015 marked the starting point of one of the largest diasporas of the 21st Century.
