How migration shapes an intercultural city

Ana María Leal Alonso

In this work, we will talk about the migratory current in the last 30 years, describing the

transformations of the city at all levels. In this case we will talk about the Venezuelan migratory

current in Medellin. This migratory current began in 1999, with a high flow of businessmen. They

arrived with a big amount of capital to invest, whereby they stablished several sources of

employment, some of these are Alimentos Polar, Farmatodo y Locatel. The second wave comes

with the professionals, it has two peaks, in 2005 and 2010. In these years the immigration was

driven by the expropriations, currency devaluation and massive layoffs in the oil sector.

26000 Venezuelan people have migrated to Medellin. In this city there has been an increase of

Venezuelan informal workers. This generated a rate of increase in unemployment, invasion of

public space, informal competition for local traders, tax evasion and discomfort for locals, which

are covered by these sellers. Somehow it generates a felling of pity for the situation of their

country, but finally all of these factors mainly affect the economy of the local treaders due to the

decrease in their sales. People don’t just thing about the quality of the product but think about the

price, because a Venezuelan sealer can sell the same thing at a lower price.

Another thing that has affected Venezuelan migration is the health system. Health providers

institution or IPS (For its acronym in Spanish) are currently in different difficulties, although the

national government give an economic support for the health sector, due the immigrant of the

Venezuelan population it is considered insufficient. The support is insufficient from the state, the

health providers institution does not have the facilities, medicine and specialized staff to cover the

demands that is being generated, this because of the fact that the health promoting entities (EPS)

began not to make the appropriate payments to the IPS. Combining these two factors, it is
possible that it collapsed, due to the demand of Venezuelans and the internal conflicts in

Colombia.

Another factor that could be looked at is crime, according to several habitants of Medellin, it has

increased since the arrival of Venezuelans in recent years. According to studies, the Venezuelans

migration in Medellin, has increased crime, but less than is thought. During the years 2015 – 2017,

the crime has increased from 0.17% to 0.8%, these numbers were obtained from the national

police. This shows that those captured in Medellin do not exceed more than 1% of the total

captures. The other wise, Toni Vitola affirms that the crimes committed by Venezuelan people are

because of their situation of vulnerability.

As a conclusion we can see that this migratory current has brought good and bad things, since it

began in 1999, even so during these years the situation has not improved, instead, it has gotten

worse because of the situation government handle. For Colombian people it is more difficult to

find a job, and for the poorest people, is more difficult to find a good health service, because of

the collapse of the health system

Number of words: 514