ABSTRACT
This chapter examines why some Venezuelans opt to remain in the country despite a protracted crisis and widespread emigration. While much research on Venezuelan mobility focuses on emigration and displacement, this analysis shifts attention to immobility, examining the complex interplay between constraint, choice, and care that shapes decisions to stay. Drawing on in-depth interviews with individuals who have remained in Venezuela, as well as with immobile relatives of migrants living abroad, the chapter employs a modified ethnosurvey approach and builds on the aspirations–capabilities framework. It critiques the model’s focus on individual volition by foregrounding relational, emotional, and moral dimensions of (im)mobility.
Findings reveal that staying in Venezuela is not merely a result of structural barriers such as financial hardship, legal restrictions, or health conditions. Rather, immobility often reflects a situated life strategy anchored in family obligations, affective attachments to place, hopes for national recovery, and everyday forms of moral reasoning. For many, remaining is an act of care towards children, elderly relatives, or transnational households, as well as a conscious choice rooted in identity, stability, and resistance to displacement. Emotional resilience, cultural pride, and fear of exploitation abroad further shape the preference to stay.
