Migration in Chile

In describing the migration process in Chile, it is important to point out that this is not a new phenomenon in the history of the country, as it has rather been constitutive of its history and of its own conformation as a national State in the 19th and 20th centuries, when the State implemented successive policies meant to attract European immigrants.

Currently, the process of international migration to Chilean territory differs from the earlier waves mentioned above, both because of the role of the State and because of the places of origin of those arriving in Chile now. This contemporary flow began in the 1990s, coming mainly from bordering countries such as Peru, Bolivia and Argentina (^{Cano & Soffia, 2009}), increasing in the 2010s both in quantity and diversity of origins, mainly intracontinental. Thus, since 2010 the inflow of Colombian and Dominican immigrants has increased, and that of Haitians and Venezuelans taking the lead since 2015. In this new scenario, and according to the latest estimate of migrant population by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística & Departamento de Extranjería y Migración (^{INE & DEM, 2021}) [National Institute of Statistics & Department of Foreigners and Immigration], the foreign community would amount to 1 492 522 people in December 2020, representing about 8% of the total population of the country, thus increasing significantly in relation to 2017, where there were 746 565 foreigners according to census data. Such drastic increase becomes evident when comparing the current figures with the 2002 Census (^{INE, 2003}), where the foreign population living in Chile amounted to only 195 320 (^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, 2020}).

This state of things is more complex and diverse than that of previous decades, as it has been met with an immigration law (Decree Law 1094) dating from 1975, typical of an economic, social and political context very different from the one Chile and the world are currently experiencing (^{Ministerio del Interior, 1975}). This law has been deemed an insufficient regulatory framework for the complexities of the current migration process. On the one hand, the body in charge (Department of Foreigners and Immigration) was established at a time of lower migration flows, and so the way it works has rather hampered the regularization processes of foreigners in recent years (^{Aninat & Sierra, 2019}; ^{Galaz Valderrama, Rubilar Donoso, Álvarez Martínez-Conde, & Viñuela Evans, 2017}), and on the other hand, the functioning of this same institution has evidenced human rights gaps by focusing on a securitization approach typical of the National Security doctrine, which emphasizes border control and not in the living conditions of migrants (^{Vásquez, Finn, & Umpierrez de Reguero, 2021}). As a result of this imbalance between the institutional framework and new migration trends, in 2021, after several years of scrutiny in the Chilean Congress, a new migration law was enacted that incorporates, on the one hand, advances in the guarantees for the rights of migrants, as well as elements of continuity on the management of human mobility from the security approach (^{Oyarzún Serrano, Aranda, & Gissi, 2021}; ^{Vásquez et al., 2021}).

As for the environment upon arrival and relations with Chilean society, recent studies have reported unfavorable perceptions on the new Andean and Caribbean migration flows (^{Márquez & Correa, 2015}; ^{Méndez, 2019}; ^{Rodríguez & Gissi, 2019}; ^{Rojas Pedemonte, Gálvez, & Silva, 2019}). Some experts associate this with the way in which Chilean identity has been constructed as a colonial enclave in the national common sense: excluding “what is amerindian” and “what is black” from the position of “what is white” (^{Larraín, 2010}; ^{Tijoux, 2019}). Other studies complement the above by stating that in unequal societies such as Chile, migrants are perceived even more as competition for resources which are scarce by excluded sectors of the receiving society (^{Méndez, 2019}; ^{Roessler, 2018}). Likewise, it has been identified that at times when the economic situation in Chile is perceived to be negative, attitudes towards immigration worsen (^{González, Muñoz, & Mackenna, 2019}). Undoubtedly, the current panorama of migration not only brings new inhabitants to the country, but also new social relations. Much has been theorized on the coexistence between communities of diverse origins; we will briefly introduce some of these theoretical developments below.

The assimilationist model can be found among the most traditional views; this model involves integrating foreign populations or minority groups into the logic of the hosting society, at the cost of abandoning their particular cultural expressions, giving them scarce recognition. As a response to this assimilationist model, multiculturalism aims at institutionalizing cultural diversity by means of policies of recognition and tolerance; multiculturalism has been criticized for dismissing the power relations that exist between minority and hegemonic groups (^{Vansteenberghe Waeterschoot, 2012}). Critical perspectives have developed a third model, which this study partakes of and will detail below.

Rootedness and Prospect of Staying

This dimension addresses the identification of migrants with the social context in which they arrive and so their life projects in that place.

The concept of rootedness can be understood as “the process and effect through which a particular relationship with the territory is established, in which one metaphorically ‘takes roots’ in it for various reasons, developing ties that sustain some kind of ‘attachment’ with the place” (^{Quezada, 2007, p. 43}). Rootedness speaks of a relationship being created by settling in a place to further a life project.

Contrastingly, leaving behind family, friends and reference groups constitutes an experience of rupture and “uprooting” from the origin: spaces of representation, identity, daily life and social relations are broken (^{Márquez & Correa, 2015}).

Discrimination, in turn, exacerbates these perceptions of uprooting among migrants, hindering their inclusion processes, affecting the possibilities of accessing opportunities and building friendships (^{Cuchumbé-Holguin & Vargas-Bejarano, 2008}). On the contrary, and following after ^{Güell (2011)}, identification with a community will allow migrants a fuller exercise their life options. This requires for them to be recognized as legitimate (and not partial) holders of rights (^{Domenech, 2014}; ^{Roessler, 2018}). According to ^{Gissi Barbieri, Ghio Suárez & Silva Dittborn (2019}), elements such as job success, and the participation in processes of cultural admixture and intercultural coexistence are circumstances under which rootedness occurs among the migrant population, enabling the undertaking of family and personal projects in the receiving location.

Rootedness is then considered an important dimension when measuring relational inclusion, as it makes visible to what extent is the presence of the migrant person more than merely physical, developing a sense of belonging (^{Diez, 2004}) and, therefore, longer lasting projects in the receiving society (Gissi et al., 2019). In this sense, with the objective of measuring rootedness, indicators were selected for the SIRI that show the prospects of staying and undertaking projects in Chile, as well as the desire for nationalization.

Symmetrical Coexistence with the Receiving Society

This dimension seeks to identify potential relational asymmetries between the migrant and non-migrant populations, or if, on the contrary, these ties are more symmetrically constructed (^{Tubino, 2005}). ^{Giménez Romero (2005}) proposed that coexistence means living in harmony with others, which is achieved through a process of construction, learning, tolerance, creation of common norms, and conflict regulation. Therefore, this process requires adaptability from the different cultures that develop in a given region; that is to say, it is a joint task.

Studying the occurrence of discrimination is fundamental given the impact that such experiences can have in the current life of those who arrive in a new country (^{Urzúa, Heredia, & Caqueo-Urízar, 2016}). In this sense, it has been observed that the experiencing of discrimination in Chile is more frequent among immigrants and even more so among those from countries with a greater Afro-descendant component (^{Rojas Pedemonte et al., 2019}).

The negative views and different forms of discrimination against the migrant population in Chile originate from different roots, which have been exposed in various studies. On the one hand, racism and colonial legacies originated in the conformation of Chilean identity (^{Tijoux, 2019}), as did a context of inequality and social inequity (^{González et al., 2019}; ^{Roessler, 2018}). Certainly, the role of the media and political discourse is not innocuous either (^{Méndez, 2019}).

In this way, so as to measure the dimension of symmetrical coexistence, the experiencing or lack of friendly relations between migrants and locals, bad experiences with Chileans, as well as experiences of direct discrimination were investigated.

Support Networks

Support networks are crucial for migrants, both for the creation of opportunities and for personal well-being.

On the one hand, family support networks, as a primary group, are fundamental in terms of well-being, containment and security (^{Guzmán-Carrillo, González-Verduzco, & Rivera- Heredia, 2015}). In this sense, migration studies themselves think of migration not only as individual movement for subsistence, but as a family strategy (^{Stark & Levhari, 1982}).

To this respect, the available literature has pointed out the importance of the quantity, diversity and quality of support networks both in relation to access to opportunities and in terms of mental health and well-being for the migrant population. Studies affirm that the support and presence of migrant and non-migrant family, friends and/or neighbors are more significant than the assistance provided by local institutions, since the former are more suited to the needs of migrants (^{Hombrados-Mendieta, García Cid, Gómez-Jacinto, & Palma García, 2016}).

In this sense, the mobilization of networks of co-nationals already settled to aid in obtaining jobs and thus developing trajectories of occupational mobility is quite relevant. Here, local support networks have proven to be more effective (^{Badwi, Dziwornu, & Overå, 2017}). Having close contacts provides support to newly arrived migrants and refugees, both for insertion into the labor market and in the field of housing (^{Ahmad et al., 2020}). In Chile, the importance of family networks has been studied, as well as that of those that go beyond the family, especially local ones that provide journeying guidance, also known as baquian ² networks ( ^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, TECHO-Chile, Departamento de Sociología Universidad de Chile, & Centro Vives UAH, 2020}; ^{Troncoso, Troncoso & Link, 2018}). It is the latter that, in most cases, provide the necessary information on local dynamics (^{López- Morales, Flores Pineda, & Orozco Ramos, 2018}).

Also, wide support networks are essential not only in order to access opportunities such as jobs and housing, but also for stability in terms of well-being, given that there are antecedents of their critical role in determining health (^{Wang & Dong, 2018}). In this sense, they have been pointed out as factors that increase well-being among migrants since they counteract discriminatory experiences and the difficulty of developing good relationships with the local community (^{Urzúa et al., 2016}). The availability of broader networks, with close ties and high level-kinship, leads to a lower propensity for depression, which shows that the quantity and quality of social networks are factors that protect mental health (^{Li, Dong & Kong, 2019}).

This way and according to studies, the family (nuclear or extended) constitutes a primary support network that can aid migrant insertion in the host society in terms of support and security. Yet the access to broader networks remains essential (even more so if baquian networks can be found among them), since these enable better access to information and provide greater support than those that are constituted by relatives only. In this way, the different types of networks just described are included as indicators in the support networks dimension: family networks, migrant networks outside the family, and local/baquian networks.

Segmentation Variables

To test the effectiveness of the SIRI―as will be described in more detail in the methodology section―as the factorial analysis is carried out, cross hypotheses and tests were carried out with certain variables considered critical in the inclusion of migrants in Chile. Particularly, segmentation variables have been selected: economic insertion, immigration status, time in Chile, access to housing, years of education, sex, and age.

Economic insertion is a fundamental area, given that one of the main motivations that drive displacement is the search for job opportunities (^{Stefoni & Bonhomme, 2014}). Although finding a job is essential when arriving in the host country, it must be considered that higher unemployment rates are reported in the first years, as well as informal jobs, which is detrimental to the migrants’ ability to acquire sufficient income (National Productivity Commission, 2019; ^{Fuentes & Vergara, 2019}). This setback generates difficulties in daily life and in the development of migration projects.

In the first years after settling, in addition to economic difficulties, the migrant population reports low attendance to school (^{Expósito, Lobos & Roessler, 2019}), low access to health services (^{Benítez & Velasco, 2019}), and lower access to formal housing (^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes et al., 2020}; ^{Troncoso et al., 2018}). This is mainly explained by the limited access of migrants to information and opportunities, given their scarce social capital during their initial period in the destination country (^{Hernando, 2019}), added to the lack of official channels to provide them counseling (^{Agencia de Calidad de la Educación, Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes y Estudios, y Consultorías Focus, 2019}; ^{Troncoso et al., 2018}).

Now, much of what happens in the initial period is related to their immigration status, given the difficulties in accessing residence permits in Chile due to the cumbersome, expensive and extensive nature of the current process (^{Aninat & Sierra, 2019}). Not having a residence permit hinders basic aspects of daily life, such as access to formal housing (^{Troncoso et al., 2018}) or health services (^{Cabieses, 2019}).

A critical point that has been studied in migrants is their access to housing and their habitability conditions. In this area, higher levels of overcrowding are observed than in the local community (^{Razmilic, 2019}; ^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes et al., 2020}), which impacts quality of life and sanitation conditions (^{Benítez & Velasco, 2019}). This reality, without a doubt, is not homogeneous among the migrant population, with some specific migrant communities being the most affected in terms of access to housing (^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes et al., 2020}).

It has also been identified that it is not possible to affirm that the educational level of migrants is an effective factor that protects against poverty and exclusion, as it is among the local population (^{Bravo, 2019}; ^{Expósito et al., 2019}). In this sense, it is argued that skills- based underemployment - which occurs when a person works in a job that requires lower qualifications than they possess - is evident among foreigners with higher education levels. Similarly, the years of education could be relevant in achieving employment for the migrant population, regardless of the qualifications required for the given job (National Productivity Commission, 2019).

On the other hand, one of the main demands by teachers who work with migrants pertains the language barrier faced by foreign students in national schools, mainly non-Spanish speakers (^{Agencia de Calidad de la Educación et al., 2019}; ^{Stefoni Espinoza et al., 2016}). Along this line, not speaking the language of the receiving country implies a set of difficulties in the adaptation process that causes an information deficit and greater obstacles to access the fields of work, health and others. In this regard, the Haitian community is the majority non-Spanish-speaking population in Chile, which, in addition to the language difference, faces difficulties derived from racism and discrimination against people of African descent (^{Rodríguez & Gissi, 2019}).

EFA and CFA Results

As for the results of the EFA, different survey questions were successively tested for the identification of the different indicators that would allow measuring the three dimensions of the views index in the methodology section. The structure of indicators with the best factorial load and reliability was chosen. Thus, in a selective process, some questions were eliminated and others were added. The best model accounted for three factors that are consistent with the theoretical dimensions devised in advance, as shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3 shows higher factor loads in factors I and II, which correspond to the dimensions of prospect to stay in Chile and coexistence with the host society.⁴ Factor III, on the other hand, shows the zero-factorial load of family networks, an indicator that we decided to keep in any case in order to incorporate the diversity and number of support networks that a migrant person can access in the host society (^{Hombrados-Mendieta et al., 2016}), as well as to make visible (instead of omitting) that said variable would not be markedly influencing the relational inclusion experiences of foreigners in the receiving society to the same extent as outside-of-the-family migrant networks indeed do, especially when it comes to local or baquian networks (^{Badwi et al., 2017}). Moreso, family networks could even play a seclusive role, since the protection of primary networks would not greatly stimulate bonding with the community settled in Chile.

On the other hand, a high factorial load was identified in the prospect time in Chile indicators (i2), dimension 1 of rootedness; in experiences of discrimination (i6), dimension 2 of coexistence; and especially that of local support networks (i9), dimension 3 of support networks. The foregoing evidences how important the prospect to stay in Chile is for rootedness and belonging in the local community (^{Gissi Barbieri et al., 2019}). It also highlights the relevance of suffering discrimination and rejection in the inclusion experiences of those who arrive in Chile (^{Urzúa et al., 2016}), but above all the importance of having access to local or baquian networks, and how these enable a better insertion in the local logics and culture (^{Badwi et al., 2017}; ^{Hombrados-Mendieta et al., 2016}). This may explain why the communality of said indicator is 0.72. Thus, the development of support networks between migrants and non-migrants is a strong indicator of inclusion. This is relevant because it reveals a great capacity to break down prejudices, installing knowledge about the “other” in the place that would otherwise be occupied by stigma (^{Ikeda & Richey, 2009}).

The intrafactorial correlations show dimensions that are independent of each other.⁵ These dimensions with which relational inclusion is measured are: Rootedness and prospect to stay,⁶Coexistence with the receiving society, ⁷ and Support networks in the receiving society.⁸

Finally, the model with the best fit obtained the 0.65 ordinal alpha.⁹ Although it does not exceed the recommended 0.7, it is close to optimal performance with dimensions that are independent of each other.¹⁰

Finally, the following should be taken into account: a) the nature of this exercise as inaugural and unprecedented on the measurement of the inclusion experiences of migrants approached from their daily relationships, in the national context; b) that we worked with the only national- level representative survey for migrants, which allows knowing the migrants’ process of relational inclusion, whose questions were not constructed as a homogeneous scale (for this reason they were made into dummies), nor designed to generate an index; and that, c) this article aims at raising considerations for a new battery of questions able to measure the concept of relational inclusion consistently.

Distribution of the Statistical Index of Relational Inclusion (SIRI)

Thus, we proceeded to calculate the index according to the indicators set out in the methodology. Graph 1 illustrates a distribution tending heavily to the right, which is reflected in the fact that the mean is 0.69 and that 50% of the cases have a 0.67 score or higher. The foregoing reflects “positive” figures on the process of migrant inclusion, but it will be relevant to observe how these figures vary in different groups of foreigners in Chile.

Source: Own elaboration based on the Migrant Voices survey (^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes & Consultora Ekhos, 2019}).

Graph 1 SIRI distribution, by score 

In order to understand in a more “didactic” manner how the index works, it was divided into thirds according to its distribution. Thus, 35% have a score from 0 to 0.56, 33.2% a score from 0.57 to 0.78, and 31% of 0.79 or higher. This way, three groups were created per SIRI score: a “low” score one, a “medium” score one, and then a “high” score one. Then, crossings were made of the variables that the available literature considers relevant for migrant inclusion in Chile, thus making it possible to know which groups of the migrant community represented the highest low score percentage.

Performance of the Index in Migrant Groups

In order to find out if the SIRI varies according to certain characteristics of the migrant population, crossings were made of “critical” variables related to socio-labor insertion, access to housing, immigration status, educational level, mother tongue, length of stay in Chile, nationality, and others of a sociodemographic nature (Table 4).¹¹

Table 4 shows certain groups of the migrant community in which there is a higher percentage of people in the low SIRI score group. Thus, in variables associated with economic insertion in Chile, there are significant disadvantages among the most vulnerable groups in terms of their relational inclusion experiences in Chile. Among those under lacking occupational situation, 42% scored low in SIRI, against only 34% among the non-lacking, this showing a statistically significant difference between both groups (p=0.005). In our context, those who do not have a job but are looking for one are categorized as “lacking” (^{Ministerio de Desarrollo Social, 2016}), including also those who do not work due to physical disabilities, as well as retired people, given how difficult are the circumstances of these groups in Chile (^{Tobar Pailamilla, 2018}; ^{Vidal Espinoza, & Cornejo Valderrama, 2016}).

The percentage of people who scored low in SIRI is also higher among those who live in a household with per capita income below the poverty line―which, at the time of the survey (2019), was 164 605 Chilean pesos per person―in relation to those who live with per capita income above the poverty line, for the former being over 40% (p=0.000). The relevance of these elements in the SIRI variation can be explained by the importance of the economic factor in the relational experience of the migration process in the destination country (Gissi et al., 2019; ^{Stefoni & Bonhomme, 2014}), which, from an intercultural approach, impacts on the perceptions of rootedness, belonging and well-being in said country (^{Tubino, 2005}).

The migrants presenting low SIRI scores the most―from the groups investigated in Table 4―are those who do not have a residence permit, either temporary or permanent,¹² reaching almost 60%, compared to only 32% of those who have a permit (p=0.000). There is also, but to a lesser extent, a difference based on the length of stay in Chile. Thus, 38.5% of those who had been in the country for two years at the time of the survey (having arrived in 2017), can be found in the low score group, while it decreases to 31.9% among those who arrived before 2017 (p=0.037). The foregoing may explain that a large part of the difficulties emerging in the first period pertain immigration status irregularity (^{Fuentes & Vergara, 2019}; ^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes et al., 2020}), which can generate perceptions of exclusion in the local community, and with it a lower level of relationships in conditions of equality, in turn diminishing intercultural communication (^{Tubino, 2005}; ^{Walsh, 2012}).

As for habitability, the Migrant Voices survey (^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes & Consultora Ekhos, 2019}) allows measuring overcrowding, as a good proxy for the quality of life in Chile (^{Razmilic, 2019}; ^{Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes et al., 2020}). Thus, 43.4% of those who live in conditions of overcrowding score low in SIRI, this reaching only 33% for those who do not live in overcrowding (p=0.055). These living conditions are also shown as associated with the experiencing of relational inclusion in the receiving community, by generating daily experiences of exclusion in the very place where migrants live.

In investigating whether the educational level of migrants could be related to better experiences of inclusion in Chile, it was observed that 38.8% of those who did not attend higher education are in the low SIRI score group, those who did attend being 30% (p=0.001). Although their educational level does not guarantee for migrants to occupy a job position in accordance with their skills (^{Bravo, 2019}), it has been however identified that it does result in lower unemployment rates (^{Comisión Nacional de Productividad, 2019}), which can eventually in turn generate feelings of inclusion and rootedness (^{Gissi Barbieri et al., 2019}).

Another group also concentrated―at more than 50%―in the low SIRI group is made up of people whose mother tongue is not Spanish. Meanwhile, only 31% of Spanish speakers are in the low score group (p=0.000). To understand this, it must be taken into account that 84% of the sample’s non-Spanish speakers reported Creole as their mother tongue. This is reflected in the distribution of the Haitian community, at 53% in the low SIRI score group, compared to the rest of the migrants, only reaching 30.2% in the low score group (p=0.000). This may be evidencing greater difficulties faced by Haitians in their inclusion process due to language differences, as well as due to elements of racism in Chilean society (^{Rodríguez & Gissi, 2019}; ^{Tijoux, 2019}), product of ingrained colonial relations that inferiorize, dehumanize and invalidate certain groups due to their cultural and genetic origin (^{Diez, 2013}; ^{Walsh, 2012}). This is relevant, given that it intensifies as well (although to a lesser extent) in Colombian people, as shown in Table 4; the host community also imprints racializing attributes on this community (^{Gissi Barbieri, Pinto Baleisan, & Rodríguez, 2019}).

Finally, when observing some sociodemographic variables, the age group between 18 and 29 years old is the one with the highest percentage of low SIRI score, at 41.2%, compared to the 32.3% of the other age groups (p=0.000).¹³ On the other hand, women recorded a higher percentage in the lowest third of inclusion (36.8%) compared to men (33%) (p=0.051). The latter can also be interesting to study from an intersectional perspective, as patriarchal culture is also a manifestation of dehumanizing and inferiorizing relationships (^{Walsh, 2012}).

Based on our observations, it can be pointed out that the SIRI would indeed be more critical among the most vulnerable groups of the migrant population. Specifically, where there is a higher prevalence of low SIRI score is among those who do not have residence permits (58%), those who were born in Haiti (53%), and those who have a mother tongue other than Spanish (52%). As such, the probabilities of scoring low in SIRI are evidenced as higher among the critical groups of the migrant population, which sheds light on the good construction of our methodological index.