seeking and seeking

In 2014, Venezuela’s economy began to collapse. The currency of this once-wealthy Latin American nation suddenly began to fail, and families that once enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle began to struggle for basic necessities. Faced with this predicament of fighting off starvation, many Venezuelans have decided to leave their country, seeking a new life where their needs may be met more assuredly. According to the United Nations, more than three million Venezuelans have left their homes. 

Hundreds of thousands have come to Brazil. 

Many do not feel that they have been welcomed. One immigrant, twenty-five-year-old Rober Solano, expressed that he felt that he had to endure a great deal of prejudice and xenophobia. “If a person is bad,” he explained to a reporter, “everyone pays for it.” Like most Venezuelan immigrants, Solano entered Brazil through the border city of Pacaraima. Residents of the city reported that violence increased with the number of Venezuelans, and reacted accordingly. Anti-immigrant demonstrations have broken out in Pacaraima, and Brazil has employed the National Public Security Force to monitor people who came into the country from Venezuela. 

Children make up a large part of immigrants who come from Venezuela. 25,000 unaccompanied minors have left the country, often pushed by their parents to seek a better life or to make money to send home to their families. While most of these young people are teenagers - sixteen or seventeen - some are as young as eleven. And the majority are unable to find work. The Brazilian economy has been unable to accommodate this influx of Venezuelans, young or old. 

Seventeen-year-old Luis has been begging for food on Brazil’s streets and sleeping on a cardboard bed. When asked about his biggest dream, Luis said, “I’ve never thought about it. Probably to see my son and mom doing okay.” 

Life was difficult for Venezuelans in their own country, and much of this hardship has remained in Brazil. 

But still, 

Seeking and seeking,

people will cross the border, hoping their hardship may lessen.