Policy On The Move

In 2020, I began what I expected to be a collaborative research effort with an international development organization operating in Trinidad and Tobago — an opportunity to examine how a U.S.-funded humanitarian program was responding to one of the most underreported displacement crises in the Western Hemisphere.

That collaboration never materialized. What emerged instead was a program evaluation completed under significant constraints: a global pandemic, no field access, and a research process shaped by the limitations that come with conducting remote work during an unprecedented public health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-country fieldwork that was originally required under the capstone program design. All research was conducted remotely.

Despite those limitations, the findings were clear. The Supporting Venezuelan Migrants in the Caribbean (SVMC) program failed to achieve its stated goals — not because of bad intentions, but because of structural failures that are endemic to how humanitarian aid is delivered in politically complex environments. Funder priorities, institutional mandates, and geopolitical considerations consistently displaced the needs of the people the program was designed to serve.

What troubles me most is that the data has not improved. As of 2025, approximately 26,500 Venezuelans remain in legal limbo in Trinidad and Tobago — without meaningful access to education, formal employment, or legal status. The structural conditions my evaluation documented in 2022 remain largely intact.

I am publishing this evaluation not as a definitive account, but as a contribution to a conversation that remains unfinished. The methodology has limitations I have named honestly. The subject matter demands more research than any single graduate student can produce. But someone had to start somewhere.

The full evaluation is available for download below.