New life for Venezuelan engineers arriving in Argentina

Carlos Quintero, mechanical engineer, works for San Antonio Internacional

He traveled 11 consecutive days by "bus", as Venezuelans say on long-distance buses. He left Maracaibo, in northwestern Venezuela, crossed Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, until arriving at Talca, in the center of the trans-Andean country.. During the trip, Carlos Quintero received a call from Argentina from San Antonio Internacional, representing services to oil companies, confirming that he had been hired to work in Neuquén. It was one of the many companies in the region to which he had sent letters before leaving Venezuela and with which he had already had a first telephone interview two weeks before getting on the first bus with his suitcases. I was trying to leave behind

Although his initial project was to settle in Chile, this call would push him to change his destiny for Argentina. But he could not change the initial itinerary at that time, since he had promised to accompany Talca to the wife and three daughters of his Venezuelan friend who were waiting for them there. Then another bus was taken to Temuco, in southern Chile, where he climbed seventh and last group of his trip, who will finally leave Neuquén Capital. He arrived on October 22nd. Tired and alone, but hopeful to start a new life. How to survive each day would not be the only concern.

As an engineer in mechanical maintenance of drilling equipment in PeDeVeSA (Venezuelan national oil company) Quintero he earned in bolivars, at real exchange rates, the equivalent of about 6 dollars a month. "With that money, I could buy 1 kilo of cheese, 1 kilo of bread and a liter of coke, and I had nothing left," he recalls.

When he arrived in Neuquén, the first thing he had to solve was to get the Argentine DNI and the CUIL to start working. "I went to Bariloche to do it quickly, the people from Migraciones behaved very well, I told them how urgent it was, they even gave me a computer, and they even got me out of it. have helped to load the necessary documentation precarious, "says this Mechanical engineer 31 yearswithout hiding his gratitude for the arrangement with which he found himself.

Quintero inspects fragmentation and fracturing equipment in oil wells

Over the last two months, Quintero has been working on San Antonio International's fragmentation and fracture equipment at various sites in the region, such as Añelo, Catriel and Rincón de los Sauces. Earn the equivalent of about 1,000 USD. "With this salary, the second month, I was able to rent an apartment, buy a bed, a kitchen and a refrigerator, which I would never have done if I stayed in Venezuela and I could not afford it. I was also able to send money to my family. " says.

In his country, ravaged by the worsening of the social and economic situation and by the political intransigence of Nicolás Madouro, he left his parents, sisters and girlfriend. "I could never marry her because in Venezuela, it became impossible to have a family, to go live with his wife in a studio or to have children. Even if you worked every day, you never had the salary"he says.

He hopes to bring his girlfriend to Argentina in April or May. "She is an engineer in oil but she has to live with her parents, she earns 18,000 bolivars a month, or about $ 5, she now needs a drug that is worth twice her monthly salary." It's hard to imagine what it's like to survive in Venezuela for those who were not there"

Quintero is one of the more than 16,000 Venezuelan engineers settled in the country between the beginning of 2016 and the end of 2018, according to official data from the Migration Directorate. This occupation is at the top of the ranking nearly 120,000 citizens of this country who have formalized their entry to Argentina in the last three years. Half of that number did it in 2018.

Reorientation of migrants

The increasing flow of Venezuelans leaving their country due to the worsening of the humanitarian crisis under the Maduro regime has brought the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Directorate of Migration, to implement in the last few months Program of orientation of the migratory flows. "It aims to adapt the labor needs of immigrants and the needs of the interior for their development, in agreement with the one who arrives in the country," he says. Infobae the director of the organization, Horacio García.

Horacio García, National Chief Executive Officer migrations.

As part of this program, last August, the Ministry of the Interior and the Migration Directorate convened a conference for Venezuelan engineers from the country, together with the Association of Venezuelan Engineers in Argentina and the Argentine Engineers Center (CAI). During the meeting, they explained the measures to facilitate the treatment of the residence and the revalidation of the professional titles, and information was provided on the provinces that might require a qualified workforce.

"Our contribution has been to show the possibilities that foreign engineers have according to the specialties required in the different provinces for different projects, in the fields of mining, agribusiness, solar energy and oil", explains the president of the CAI, Horacio Cristiani, in dialogue with this media.

Deficit of Argentine engineers

Is the incorporation of Venezuelan engineers detrimental to your Argentine colleagues ?, he asked Infobae in Cristiani. "We do not see this as a problem because Argentina has been lacking engineers for several years. Approximately 8,000 people are received each year, a relatively small number compared to other professions.. In the country, Venezuelan engineers cover certain required capabilities, such as electrical and mechanical engineering. 60% are civil, industrial, mechanical engineers and only 10% of them are specialized in oilAnd he adds: "The advantage is that 80% have the absolute availability to go inside the country. "

The president of the Association of Venezuelan Engineers in ArgentinaCarmen Rodríguez agrees: "Some companies in different provinces have vacancies they can not fill with Argentine engineers." She herself is an oil engineer based in Buenos Aires since February 2017. She has not yet managed to practice her profession in the country.

The badociation has an account in Instagram –Ingénieurs.ar– with 23,000 active followers, where they publish information about sources of work. He also manages another account in the professional network Linkedin (called "Engineers venzolanos"), a group of WhatsAppand another Telegram, with more than 200 members each. "When we discover an offer of employment or Migraciones informs us, we publish it in our networks," says Rodríguez.

The Association conducted a first census last year in which it gave some 4,000 Venezuelan engineers different specialties. Despite what one might think, only 10% specialized in oil and 14% in industrial engineering. From the same relaxation, it follows thatl 32% have between 2 and 5 years of experience and 25% between 5 and 10 years.

Rodríguez emphasizes that because of the limitations of a penniless civil organization, it does not have the ability to actively monitor the number of engineers working in their profession in the country. However, he admits that "a large majority work on something else: bashers, servers or autopilot"

Rodríguez, president of the Association of Venezuelan Engineers of Argentina

She is hired as a secretary in a high school and her husband – an oil engineer like her – works as a signalman in a railway company. Previously, he had been a depot and had worked as a cleaning staff. "We sold the house, the car and everything to be able to come to Argentina, there were my parents and my four sisters," says Rodriguez, 39, not without regret.

In Venezuela, she worked for 11 years as an engineer in a PEDEVESA gas tank. "But we did not have enough to live in. There was no food, no medicine. Do you know what it is with a 5 year old son? We did not want to risk being sick and not having antibiotics. We are all three. "

Last Friday – the day of the mbadive concert to raise funds for humanitarian aid to Venezuela – was a special day for her, as for thousands of Venezuelans living in the country. "As they say in my country, I have watery guarapo and I cried almost all afternoon," he wrote in a message to this columnist.

Opportunities in the south

Vicente Martínez is an electrical engineer. He learned about the existence of the orientation session organized by Migrations last August on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, while he was still in Venezuela. He had already made the decision to leave his country because the situation was unsustainable. "I discovered the web of strategies for engineers to settle in provinces like Rio Negro, Chubut and Neuquen. It gave me the impression that I had to go south to have a better chance of finding a job. "

With 42 years and a voluminous curriculum including three master's degrees and two postgraduate degrees, he left his post as director of after-sales and services of the Venezuelan company Doosan, dedicated to the import of machines from South Korea, Argentina. "Before, I was making good at the official exchange rate, but at the real exchange rate, it was about $ 60 a month, I could not afford to support my family," she said.

Vicente Martínez, electrical engineer, works for a construction company

He arrived on November 18 by plane with his wife and two children aged 11 and 13. He was in Buenos Aires just a few hours and then continued his way to Bariloche by land. "The first thing we did was go to the immigration office to formalize the residence, they immediately helped us get the documentation and in a month we already had a temporary residence. " This requirement is the first step of any job search and is the first to be found almost all Venezuelans. "It is the community that is trying to regulate its situation the most," said the director of Migrations.

Martinez went to the municipal office for the Bariloche job and distributed dozens of resumes, personally and by mail, to different companies. While he was preparing to spend Christmas outside his home country on Dec. 23, he received a call from the owner of the construction company Artegna for an interview. He has received the New Year with the hope of a new future. The first week of January, he began working as director of a work in Bariloche. Hired in a relationship of dependency, Earn the equivalent of about $ 700 a month.

"Although I am below my qualification, I am very grateful because my job is stable and allows me to rent and live with my family, here all together.. I am still revalidating my engineering degree, "he said during a phone interview.

The hope of Vaca Muerta

According to data from the Association of Venezuelan Engineers, More than 85% of registered professionals are based in Buenos Aires and the suburbs. However, 80% are willing to move to another location to practice their profession.

The second destination chosen by these professionals is Neuquén, where Vaca Muerta is located, the main geological formation of unconventional oil and gas of the country.

In this province, the local labor sub-secretariat has already met with representatives of the chambers of commerce, the hierarchical staff of the oil sector, the union and the Neuquén Engineers Association to badyze the sector's demands.

"Although the local workforce is prioritized – we have an engineering degree from the University of Comahue – when specialized profiles are needed, they are sought after among foreigners "José Ernesto Seguel, Deputy Secretary of Labor of Neuquén and President of the Federal Labor Council. Explain that they are Conducting a survey of the line man for manpower requirements, and acknowledged that over the past year, the influx of Venezuelan engineers in the region had increased.

"At Vaca Muerta, the world's leading companies operate. an increase in blank work in the province from 114,000 to 120,000 jobs, two jobs related to the construction and activity hydrocarbons, "he adds.

According to unofficial estimates, Some 400 Venezuelan professionals and employees – not just engineers – work in companies providing oil services related to Vaca Muerta.

From YPF – the country's largest oil company that also operates in the region – said that "throughout the Group – including YPF Gas, OPESSA service stations and the service branch of AESA-, Venezuelans go around the 80s on a staff of 19,000 people throughout the company. "

Juan Jiménez, 33, is an industrial engineer. He arrived in Argentina in November 2017 with his wife. From an employment offer that she has achieved as a profession of nephrologist at the Clinica del Valle in Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, she has decided to settle in this windy, windy city of Patagonia. that she would have more job opportunities than in Buenos Aires. "People from Migrations in Comodoro gave me data from labor consultants in the area to see which companies might need to hire staff in my specialty," he says.

After working for several months in a drug company, he prepares, He was hired last December to work at the Los Hércules wind farm., which builds the German Senvion for the French total in the city of Las Heras. Four other Venezuelan engineers work with him. In this town of Santa Cruz located more than 9,000 kilometers from the Venezuelan Caribbean, two other engineers he knew came to work at YPF, and a third in another company in the construction sector.

Juan Jiménez, at the Los Hércules wind farm in Las Heras (Santa Cruz).

In his country, Jiménez worked for eleven years for the National Electric Corporation, a Venezuelan public company. Won the equivalent, at that time, of about 10 dollars. "Today, I earn, at the current exchange rate, about $ 1,300 per month"he says. He lives in Las Heras from Monday to Friday and on weekends he goes to Comodoro to see his wife and 7 year old daughter. "I can not be more than grateful. I was more than welcome in this country"he says.

The Venezuelan engineers who remained in Buenos Aires in search of a job constituted the majority, with a mixed fate when they could find a job in their profession. Fabián Carrasco, a 33-year-old telecommunications engineer, arrived in the country in February 2016 and is currently in permanent residence.

Fabián Rodríguez obtained an engineering position in electronics at Telered.

In Venezuela, he was director of the direct television channel in the state of Portuguesa and had his own company that provided Internet services. "But when the situation got worse, I had to put the car on sale and I started raising money to come to Argentina." A friend who had already come to the country had begun to process the DNI and was approaching the date he was due to appear. "One Sunday at 10 pm I went to the Conviasa airline website to see if I could get a ticket to travel, which is not easy, you have to be very lucky." He had it. There was a ticket for only $ 150 – he said – when it usually cost $ 500. "I still have the labels of boarding cardhe said with emotion.

After sending innumerable the curriculums from his hostel to San Telmo where he stayed on his arrival, they called him two months after Telered, a cable television subsidiary, where today works as manager of logistics and modem programming of all the company's headquarters.

"The one who opened the doors was Angel Padula," he recalls gratefully. "I came in as a street technician, got up every day at 4:30 in the morning and made two and a half hours to go to San Miguel, San Telmo, and then I was promoted to home technician." . Since he lacked 4 subjects to receive an electronics engineer, he asked for permission to take days to study remotely and managed to study at Fermín Toro University. "My boss, Jorge Funes, helped me a lot because he found that he had put a lot of effort into making progress".

With his income, he was able to return to Venezuela to marry his girlfriend and accompany him. Today, they are renting a house in Muñiz, in the San Miguel district of Buenos Aires. He could also bring his parents.

Proudly, he concludes: "I always thank you for receiving me in this beautiful homeland. I arrived with a cup, a glbad, cutlery and two pans. Today, I live in a big house, I have two TVs, a dog and many things that I would not have realized if I stayed under the dictatorial regime of Venezuela."