Venezuelan Argentines


Venezuelan Argentines are Argentine citizens of predominantly or total Venezuelan descent, or Venezuelan citizens who have migrated to and settled in Argentina. As of 2022, there are 300,000 Venezuelans living in Argentina, most of whom migrated during the latter half of the 2010s as part of the Venezuelan refugee crisis. The last census held in Argentina, in 2010, registered only 6,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the country.
As of 2018, Venezuelans were the fourth-largest expat community in Argentina, behind Paraguayans, Bolivians and Chileans. According to IOM figures, Argentina granted 170,223 residency permits to Venezuelan citizens alone from 2018 to 2020, nearly twice as many as to Paraguayan citizens. This makes Venezuelans the fastest-growing expat community in the country.

Characteristics

The Venezuelan community in Argentina has grown considerably since 2015 due to a number of factors, most notably, the ongoing socioeconomic crisis experienced by the Caribbean country. Despite the geographical distance between the two countries, Argentina's lax migration laws have made the country a major destination for Venezuelans.
According to a 2019 IOM report studying Venezuelan migrants in Buenos Aires, 80.4% of respondents had jobs at the time the study was conducted : 55% as employees and 25.4% as independent workers; 15.6% were unemployed. Around 70% of the surveyed migrants counted with a monthly salary ranging between Argentina's mandated minimum wage and twice that amount. By business sector, 43% were active in commerce, 26% in transport, 6% in health, and 3% in IT. Nearly 71% of the surveyed migrants worked in the informal economy, while 29% worked in registered jobs.
The Venezuelan diaspora in Argentina has been politically active, being overwhelmingly supportive for Argentina’s far-right president, elected in 2023, Javier Milei.

Notable people