Social media and inclusion in humanitarian response: ‘caminantes’ at the Venezuela–Colombia border

This study seeks to understand the role of social media in humanitarian action in the Venezuelan refugee crisis. In doing so, it focuses specifically on the experiences of Venezuelan caminantes – migrants and refugees travelling primarily by foot – as they move across the border from Venezuela to Colombia.

Reflecting HPG’s wider research focus on inclusion, caminantes were selected as a highly vulnerable, socially isolated, mobile population with limited access to humanitarian aid or other support. Based on research in other migration and refugee contexts, this choice is informed by the hypothesis that social media could provide specific opportunities for people on the move to better access information or connect with service providers.

The study explores how caminantes use social media, and how far it supports their inclusion in the humanitarian response in Venezuela. Through conversations with aid actors, it also situates the specific circumstances of the caminantes within a wider lens of how social media is being used in the transboundary response more broadly.

Please find the following translations in the sidebar: 

• English: main file pdf
• Spanish: main file epub