For over a decade, Venezuela has been gripped by a combination of political, economic, social, health, and security crises, leading to an emigration that is unprecedented in the region and globally beyond war zones. In this master’s thesis, we analyzed the socio-political events in Venezuela that have led to the emigration of one in four citizens since 2014, making the Venezuelan exodus one of the largest migration crises in the world. We focused specifically on Venezuelan Slovenians repatriated by the Republic of Slovenia after 2019. Slovenian legislation provides for the possibility of repatriating Slovenians living in countries experiencing severe economic or political conditions. The thesis explored the personal stories of repatriated individuals: their motives for migration or repatriation, their demographic structure, the impact of the crisis on the Slovenian community in Venezuela, and aspects of the repatriated individuals’ integration into the new society. The empirical part of the research was based on statistical data and primarily on semi-structured interviews with seven repatriates from six different nuclear families who have been in Slovenia for at least 15 months, as well as interviews with representatives from Caritas Slovenia, which oversees their integration into society, and a representative from the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, which coordinates the process. In total, by August 2024, 149 Venezuelan Slovenians and their immediate relatives have arrived in Slovenia, marking the first repatriation of this scale in the country’s history.
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