Decent Work for displaced people: Lessons from the experiences of Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee workers in Colombia and Brazil

This paper explores responses to the decent work deficits experienced by displaced Venezuelans in Colombia and Brazil. Both countries have now offered legal temporary status to almost all Venezuelan migrants and refugees, including the right to work and rights as workers. These permits have brought meaningful benefits, but many Venezuelans still labor under substantially worse conditions than their local counterparts. It is widely understood that part of the solution is to facilitate recognition of Venezuelans’ educational and professional credentials so they can gain high-skilled formal employment. Opening these doors will be important for those who qualify. Yet the majority of Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Colombia and Brazil have a secondary education or less, and are likely to remain in informal and low-wage formal sectors for the foreseeable future.

To improve their working conditions will require efforts to enforce labor rights and increase worker representation at the bottom of the labor market. Almost a decade into the diaspora, displaced Venezuelans are seeking to advance this goal, with the support of civil society, trade unions, and their own associations. These efforts have been little documented. The paper illustrates the importance of migrant and refugee worker organizing through a case study in each of Colombia and Brazil, and calls for increased support for such initiatives as one prong of the effort to advance decent work for displaced Venezuelans in Latin America and the Caribbean—and for the other refugee, migrant, and local workers who labor alongside them.