Reacting to Change within Change: Adaptive Leadership and the Peruvian Response to Venezuelan Immigration

Abstract Peru is the second most important destination country for Venezuelan emigration. The country’s policy response can be separated into two distinct phases: the first one, under former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (July 2016–March 2018), is characterized by relative openness; the second one, under incumbent president Martín Vizcarra (in office since March 2018), is characterized by policy closure and a shift towards securitization. In this paper, we apply the concept of adaptive leadership to explain the stark difference in the migration‐related governance of both presidents. We find that the policy shift can be explained by an interplay between three factors: an internal political crisis due to conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government; the change in number and social profiles of Venezuelan migrants, with a tendency towards lower social, economic and educational statuses; and the rise in xenophobic attitudes among the Peruvian population.