Migration or Return? The Movement of Transnational Wayuu Indigenous People

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the experience of the transnational Wayuu indigenous people, who recently returned in large numbers from the Venezuelan side to the Colombian side. The author explains how the Wayuu refer to this movement as return and not migration. It is both a political claim to show that the territory on both sides of the border is equally Wayuu, as well as to reclaim the parental ties that have contributed in the survival of this indigenous people. The paper concludes by highlighting that the wayuu way of perceiving the territory differs from that of the State and it addresses questions about the relation of citizenship and the State in borders that separate peoples who consider themselves unitary.