Abstract
Colombia hosts one of the largest forced migrant populations in the world, with 1.7 million Venezuelans living there by November 2020. Since 2017, the Colombian government has provided temporary protection to more than 700,000 Venezuelans. We examine the effectiveness of this effort for labour market integration and access to education and health care. We find that temporary status has succeeded in providing legal protections to many migrants, and in providing some access to the labour market and basic education and health care. It may not advance long‐term mobility within the labour market or access to preventative or specialized health care. Implementation problems may also limit access in practice to basic education and health care. Perhaps most importantly, there have been no attempts in more than two years to provide temporary protection to migrants who entered the country irregularly, so a majority of Venezuelan nationals in Colombia now lack legal status.