In Chile, immigrants face growing xenophobia

By Flora Genoux

Posted today at 04:14

The blankets stacked as mattresses, the windowless room, the sink serving as the kitchen, 34-year-old Marbels embraces everything with a sweeping gesture. “It’s a palace for us after what we’ve been through”, loose this Venezuelan who arrived in Santiago (Chile) at the end of October, at the end of a grueling migratory journey, sometimes by bus, sometimes on foot, carried out with her sister, Norelis, 27, and their five children. Lying at the start of the afternoon, the cousins, aged 4 to 12, await the return of their mothers who have left to seek food aid. “They haven’t eaten yet. But, at least, in Chile, they will sleep with a full stomach, not like in Venezuela, and that makes me happy ”, complete Norelis.

The family crossed the northern border of Chile on foot from Bolivia, like many other Venezuelans, driven by the humanitarian crisis in their country of origin. These images and those of migrants camping, without accommodation, especially in the north of the country, marked the presidential campaign. In the first round, Sunday, November 21, the far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast (Republican Party), came first with 27.9% of the vote, two points ahead of the left-wing MP Gabriel Boric, who ‘he will face in the second round, on December 19. “We must build a ditch” to prevent the passage of migrants, said José Antonio Kast, who made immigration one of his campaign themes.

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Never had the subject been so present during a poll. In the wake of the first round, Johannes Kaiser, deputy of the Republican Party elected on November 21, declared: “Women no longer go jogging in the park because they are afraid that migrants will rape them. “ Then, with reference to the score of the left: “They continue to vote for the parties that welcome these people and, there, you wonder if the right to vote [des femmes] was a good idea. ” The member had to resign from the Republican Party following these comments.

Josmeri, 9, in front of the temporary room where she lives with her family, in Santiago, on November 19, 2021.
Rosneidi, 11, in the temporary room where she sleeps with her family, in Santiago, on November 19, 2021

According to calculations by the Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM), which works for their rights, 1.4 million immigrants lived in Chile in 2020, for a total population of 19 million. This figure, which does not include irregular situations, has almost doubled since 2017. With nearly 500,000 people, Venezuelans constitute the first foreign community, ahead of Colombians, Peruvians and Bolivians.

Inequalities aggravated by Covid-19

“Social cohesion has become fragile in Chile”, says Waleska Ureta, director of the SJM. The arrival of darker-skinned migrants comes up against, she said, “A Chilean population which has built its identity around a homogeneous whiteness”, and an economy riddled with inequalities, made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The country will however largely absorb in 2021 (11% growth forecast) the collapse of the GDP of the previous year, of 5.8%.

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