ABSTRACT
There has been a growing health crisis with Venezuelan refugees in Peru. Venezuelan refugees, who have escaped the many dangers from the expanding political, economic, cultural, and safety crises they faced living in Venezuela by migrating to live in Peru, have encountered many different difficult and continuing physical and mental health problems in their new home country (Peru), especially while being forced to navigate the serious and evolving social and health repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter examines many serious health challenges that these refugees (and refugees in general) have faced and how they relate to health communication. We use the Venezuelan refugee crisis in Peru as a descriptive case study for exploring the health communication needs of refugees to promote their safety and wellbeing. We examine the wide variety of different serious health problems that these refugees often confront, the underlying sociopolitical, environmental, and public health factors in Peru that lead to these serious health risks and suggest ways that strategic communication research, programs, and policies can be used to reduce social stigma and improve health conditions to help overcome these health problems for members of vulnerable refugee populations.
