The Venezuelan diaspora grew in the Big Apple, in a matter of 22 months, in a meteoric way: In a 1.000%!
In that short space of time, a series of stigmas also appeared in the epicenter of Hispanic communities, that particularly associate these “newcomers” with very negative labels. Today for this community, it is no longer just a challenge to integrate into a complicated, expensive and multicultural city, but also to expressions of rejection that are very difficult to hide.
This entire trend has been fueled by a sequence of criminal acts that made national headlines in recent weeks.
“Unfortunately for a large majority who have come to work, pay taxes and contribute with their great talent, the terrible criminal conduct and behavior of a group has created narratives that unfairly place us all in the same place. We recognize that there are fellow nationals who have had terrible behavior here and in other countries“, describe Pedro de Llanoa university professor and content creator on digital platforms.
This Venezuelan, with 25 years in New York City, directs his gaze towards the manifestations of hate that are very palpable on social networks and in derogatory comments that are easy to hear in many spaces, especially where other Latin American migrants coexist.
“I think that good Venezuelans have a lot of work to do to overcome stigmatization that is driven by totally deplorable attitudes and actions of people in our country. It would be fair to define human beings by their particularities, not by their nationality.“he added.
Venezuelan Pedro de Llano has lived in NYC for 25 years: “Good Venezuelans have a lot of work to do to overcome these stigmas.” (Photo: Courtesy)
Between panic and shame
For Venezuelans, with a long journey in this city, negative labels could become just an uncomfortable anecdote. Instead, for thousands of newcomers, it is simply a great wall, increasingly difficult to climb.
On this shore, the migrant is found Venezuelan Vanesa Delgado, who arrived with his son six months ago and has the same perception of rejection due to his origin: “I have never been able to work. When they know that you are Venezuelan and live in a shelter, They make excuses not to give you a chance.. And I even know many who don’t even want to rent a room. “I am precisely fleeing the xenophobia of Peru.”
Others like the public accountant from Caracas, Mildred Sánchez, 38, who emigrated in 2017 and is still waiting for his interview regarding his asylum application, He states that he feels “panic and ashamed” about this news about his compatriots. The worst thing is that he is certain that these “scandals” could affect immigration relief that has been fought for years, not only for Venezuelans, but for all migrants: “This does not only affect our flag, but the Hispanic community as a whole.”
Venezuelan Vanesa Delgado arrived with her son six months ago. She has felt that there exists within Latin American communities a marked rejection of the presence of their nationals in the Big Apple. (Photo: F. Martínez)
“The full weight of the law”
Given this complex circumstance, Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid (VIA) a volunteer organization founded by Venezuelan migrants, which for For seven years he has cared for displaced people from that countryissued a statement concluding that “there are many more examples and stories of those people who, with their talent and knowledge, have contributed to this great city in science, technology, sports, music and culinary arts.”
Of course, VIA made it clear that the majority of “good” Venezuelan citizens demand “the full weight of the law” to those who engage in criminal actions.
“There is an entire generation that grew up under the influence of a criminal regime in Venezuela, where the institutions are in the hands of mafias. We would not be surprised if Nicolás Maduro’s regime is injecting criminal cells to destabilize countrieswhere an honest majority is seeking protection,” he said. Niurka Melendezdirector of VIA.
Meléndez highlights that we must not lose sight of the fact that behind the story of each Venezuelan who has arrived across the border, there is also almost always a story of human trafficking. And that for many criminal organizations, migration of this type, It is a multi-million dollar business.
Triggers for the immigration debate
Derived from a compilation of cases reported journalistically, in the last six months, 82 migrants identified as Venezuelans who were received in the NYC shelter system have had interactions with the police and justice. In a large proportion, due to criminal actions such as assault on police officers, shoplifting, assaults and an attempted murder. But the number that has incurred with recidivism in minor crimessuch as shoplifting or robberies, would be very difficult to determine.
If we are trying to find some informal statistical definition, this does not mean not even 0.01% of the migratory wave from that Latin American country, between May 2022 and December 2023.
As several leaders of organizations agree, such as Jesús Aguais, director of the Aid for Aids organization, “some isolated events” put dynamite the discussion on migration, in the midst of the dispute over the Democratic and Republican primaries towards the presidential elections in November 2024.
“With the influence of social networks and the need of this political moment of mobilizing emotions of fear and angersome facts have been highlighted that have been terrible and deserve to be severely punished. But it is also very important to balance that they are not representative to define an entire country.”he opined.
The activist does not doubt that this perception will fade over time. And he argues that historically in such massive migratory waves, it is common, that criminals also mix in.
“The big difference is that this is the first immigration crisis that New York has faced with the social media virality and its ability to polarize. We are sure that those who are doing it wrong will not achieve a system of complicity here. Sooner or later they will face justice. And that is already being demonstrated“Aguais concluded.
in the headlines…
Since January 27, when an alleged group of Venezuelans between 18 and 24 years old kicked wildly to two officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the description of criminal activities that feature young people and teenagers of this nation.
Everything reached the limit of effervescence, when a 15-year-old teenager shot a Brazilian tourist in the leg and tried to injure police officers when they were discovered robbing a sports store in Times Square.
Previously, that same week, the Uniformed Forces confirmed the dismantling of a sophisticated motorized gang led by a Venezuelan residing in the Bronx, dedicated to stealing cell phones from passersby.
In this sense, NYPD Commissioner Edward Cabán maintained that “in no way” do these crimes represent the profile of criminal behavior that describes the migrants housed in shelters.
Then he name of another Venezuelan, jumped to the headlines of the country’s media in February for being accused as the only suspect in the murder of a young student in Georgia, with the precedent that he had lived in New York for almost a year. And he had already had problems with the police.
A wave that reached the Big Apple
Until 2020, according to census reports, the community of Venezuelans in New York City did not exceed 15,000 people.
According to the balance sheets, at that time, more than 70% of this group of migrants had a university degree, meaning the Hispanic group with the most academic degrees in the Big Apple.
After the pandemic, specifically since the spring of 2022, that number expanded dramatically in a matter of months: unofficially, more than 150,000 Venezuelans are currently in the city.
Of the 65,000 migrants currently under the care of the municipal shelter system, More than 50% come from this South American nation.
Of the wave of families and single people who arrived on buses from Texas, after having crossed the southern border of Mexico, between 60-70% came from the oil country. In a significant proportion many are ‘reimmigrants’, who had already lived in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile.
“Bad behavior crept in”
As was almost predictable, a migratory flow so sudden, massive and with few border controls, combined with the terrible conditions of a country with a humanitarian crisis that has expelled to more than 8 million of its citizens, Not everyone came equipped with the work culture, as a component to achieving the “American dream.”
“A rumor spread on social networks, especially in Colombia, that the border was open in the United States and Venezuelans had preference. In addition, it went viral that they were providing housing and food. And many bad behaviors and miscreants who had nothing to lose also took advantage of that. Or they were fleeing from ‘snakes’ (problems with other criminals) to embark on this adventure,” he shared. Jerónimo Segovia, 55 years old, a migrant from Caracas, with a year in the Big Apple.
In the last eight years, strong debates have intensified in Colombia about the presence of dangerous criminal organizations that fled Venezuela due to disputes with military and police forces, with whom they shared the control of drug trafficking routes, extortion and other criminal activities.
The same thing happened in Peru and more strongly in Ecuador, where the Public opinion attributes the proliferation of certain crimes and violence to Venezuelan migration.
Jerónimo, who previously lived in Colombia, assures El Diario from the “bowels of the monster” of the New York municipal shelter systemthat although the overwhelming majority of their compatriots arrived with “false information” about what the United States really is, almost all of them speak in those spaces who just want a job opportunity.
The South American migrant says that he is worried that “a small group has slipped in that since he was born He only knew the “malandreo and the rattle” (crime and extortion) as a way of survival in a country, destroyed 25 years ago by a “socialist revolution.”
The other labels
Beyond the recent specific criminal acts, this migratory wave had already been at the center of another debate: the discontent of New York residents about the financial and social cost of the municipal rule that gives the right to shelter to anyone who requests it, a controversial legal loophole that forced the City to invest millions of dollars to cover the costs of lodging, food, medical, legal and educational services.
“In addition, they received them with a red carpet, they give them papers, the City pays them lawyers, they live in shelters, they don’t pay taxes, they cover all their meals, on top of that they go out to steal. They already did the same with my country, now they are going to destroy New York too“, this lapidary phrase, is in summary the feeling of Luisa Viloria, that multiplies incessantly and without concealment through the streets of neighborhoods of Hispanic majority like Jackson Heights. And in any open comment forum on social media.
Although municipal emergency shelters have housed thousands of people from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, several Caribbean and Central American countries, as well as migrants from West Africa, The largest proportion has been families and single Venezuelan men.
The data:
- 1,000% has been the increase in the Venezuelan population in New York between May 2022 and December 2023.
2024-03-11 10:00:00
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