Visa policies and porous borders: Quasi-experimental evidence on their short and long-term effects from Peru

• In Event: The Politics of Migration in Latin America

Abstract

Countries across the globe are increasingly adopting more restrictive immigration policies,
yet little is known about how such restrictions affect immigration flows and immigrants’
integration. To explore this crucial topic, we study the mass displacement of Venezuelan
nationals in Peru, and we analyze a natural experiment from Peru, in which the government
suddenly introduced visa restrictions to stop the arrival of Venezuelans in June 2019.
In our study we show how the introduction of restrictions was ineffective at deterring migrants
from crossing borders and instead mostly shifted their mode of entry. We also show,
using a difference-in-difference design, that such restrictions negatively affect migrants’ social,
economic, and political integration. Furthermore, these negative integration outcomes
largely persisted even after a subsequent regularization program was adopted. This study
contributes to broader debates about immigration policies and immigrant integration.

Authors

• Omar Hammoud Gallego, Durham University

• Mathias Poertner, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Luisa Freier, Universidad del Pacífico