Institutional and Social Xenophobia Towards Venezuelan Migrants in the Context of a Racialized Country: The Case of Peru

Abstract

AbstractAlthough there is a growing academic interest in xenophobia in South America (Chan & Strabucchi, Asian Ethnicity 22(2):374–394, 2020; Tijoux-Merino, Convergencia: Revista de Ciencias Sociales 20(61):83–104, 2013; Guizardi & Mardones, Estudios Fronterizos 21:1–24, 2020), research is incipient on Peru due, in part, to the recent changes in migration trends. Moreover, in the case of Peru, scholars have not explored how xenophobia and racism intersect and connect. Addressing this gap, this chapter examines xenophobia in Peru against the Venezuelan community from an institutional and social perspective, addressing how both perspectives are relational and self-sustaining in a context of racialization. We use a mixed methodology that combines literature and political-normative analysis with quantitative data analysis. We examine how the institutional xenophobia against Venezuelan migration in the country, expressed through legislation as well as informal and formal practices of exclusion, have portrayed migrants as invaders. We also argue that the structural and complex racialization that operates in the country is also nourished by a special hatred against the foreigner who threatens the fragile sense of nationhood in Peru. Thus, we observe the emergence of a feeling of Venezuelanphobia as a hatred towards everything that has to do with ‘the Venezuelan.’