Negotiating the Colombian border: Venezuelan migrant women’s survival in Cúcuta

This study is about how Venezuelan migrant women negotiate their survival in a border city in Colombia. Cúcuta was selected because the city has been socially and economically very important since at least the 1970s, for migration which was formerly mainly from Colombia to Venezuela. The Simon Bolivar bridge located in its metropolitan area is the most used crossing point along the border. In this study, the border is understood as a set of practices by different actors. Survival in this context is understood not only in economic terms, for the migrant women now crossing from Venezuela, but includes how these migrant women cope with different actors, including police, migration officers, and criminals extorting them. One finding was that Venezuelan women migrants’ vulnerability was reinforced in the case of those engaged in selling sex in the city, because of the conditions and the stigmatisation towards this activity. One way the women migrants reduce the risks of their status and their work is through female resistance networks involving relations of mutual support and protection.