A Story of Integration: Strategy to Combat Xenophobia Against Venezuelan Migrants in Colombia

By 2020, Colombia had received 1.6 million Venezuelan migrants according to Colombia Migration, the country’s migration authority. This makes of Colombia the country with the highest number of Venezuelan migrants since the exodus began. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Colombians’ disapproval of the regularization of migrants and the opening of the Venezuelan border was above 80%, according to the Invamer national opinion survey.

The Border Agency had been created as a transitory advisory office to the President of the Republic in 2018. Three years after it was created, the communications team needed to set up its communication initiatives with a strategy based on data to reduce xenophobia, align state initiatives, structure cooperation and procure international funding. The objectives that guided the project during six months were:
– Warranting access to State services to the migrant population for their social and economic integration.
– Align national and local State entities to provide integral timely service to migrants.
– Coordinate service initiatives with international cooperation organizations and NGOs.
– Attract national and international financial support.
– Lead the unified narrative to communicate to Colombians about Venezuelan migration.
– Prevent and mitigate xenophobia against Venezuelan migrants.

With this strategy buho were bronze award winner in 2021 for the AMEC (international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication) Awards.

In this presentation we will explain how we did it and the achievements we reached .