Table 1.
Liminal Legality in Restrictive versus Welcoming Immigration Legal Context
| Liminal Legality Characteristics | Antagonistic Context towards Immigrants | Welcoming Context towards Immigrants (Colombia) |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal depends on executive officials’ discretion | Yes | Yes |
| Temporary and without a path to citizenship | Yes | Yes |
| Applications are highly inaccessible | Yes | No |
| Recipients are aware of legal status’s fragility and the threat of deportation | Yes | Unknown (possible no) |
1
On February 8, 2021, President Iván Duque introduced Temporary Protection Status for Venezuelan Migrants (Estatuto de Protección Temporal para Migrantes Venezolanos, ETPV) and claimed that this program would give recipients ten years to secure legal permanent residency. However, the administrative action’s text does not specify the mechanism towards legal permanent resident status, and the program can end before the ten years, which will leave ETPV holders undocumented (Migración Colombia 2021).