The Politics of Generosity. Colombian Official Discourse towards Migration from Venezuela, 2015-2018

Abstract

Objective/Context: As a step towards understanding the nature of power and political action amidst large-scale human mobility, the article analyses how migration from Venezuela emerged in Colombian official discourse between 2015 and 2018. The aim is to trace Colombia’s migration policy’s leading drivers, widely perceived as a generous response towards an escalating humanitarian crisis. Methodology: A context analysis of over 400-plus pieces of information produced by three high-level entities inside the Colombian government was designed. Units of analysis were defined based on van Dijk ́s (1997) approach to political discourse, while coding of information was traced drawing upon selected scholarship on Critical Border Studies. Conclusions: Colombian official discourse between 2015 and 2018 was shaped by pragmatism, focusing on consolidating a schema of specific governmentality by eliciting three interrelated processes: the construction of an imaginary of migration from Venezuela as a process made precarious; the consolidation of a strategy of irregularization; and the centering of ‘generosity’ as the leading premise for legitimizing political action. Originality: The article sheds light on the nature of the power context in which the Colombian government’s response to migration from Venezuela emerged by empirically adapting current critical scholarship.