Migration pits candidates in Chile’s final election

by

Between the two lanes of the busy Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue, Santiago’s main artery, there are a series of camping tents. Of different colors, they line up as far as the eye can see, and are more crowded in the bustling commercial area around Central Station.

Its inhabitants are, in general, foreigners. Migrants of the latest wave, coming from countries in the region that have suffered political problems or consequences of the economic impact of the pandemic. Those who arrived in the greatest volume last year were Venezuelans, followed by Haitians and Peruvians, according to the Department of Migration.

“I was in the north, but there the reception we had was very hostile, they burned all the blankets we had and even baby bottles, things from the children, a disrespect that I didn’t think I would feel in Chile”, says Zully Isler, 31, coming from Guanare, Venezuela, with two children and her husband. She refers to the series of violent attacks suffered in September by Venezuelan immigrants in Iquique (1,500km from Santiago, near the border with Peru), by Chileans against immigration.

Immigration is one of the issues that generate intense debate in Chile, which next Sunday (19) chooses the successor to right-wing president Sebastián Piñera. The two candidates in the dispute for the second round have opposing views on how to deal with the issue.

Leftist Gabriel Boric, at the forefront in the polls, defends a policy of better reception and criticizes the current president for having created a bureaucratic and expensive system to regularize the situation of migrants. Boric proposes controls to prevent illegal migration and that of people who have committed crimes in their country of origin.

The ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast has a tougher stance. It proposes drawing up an expulsion statute, which would deport all those who have not entered legally, and advocates that border posts be reinforced with policing, as well as clandestine crossings. He also wants to build control towers and a wall in parts of the border region.

In the most recent survey by Cadem institute, Boric has 40% of voting intentions, against 35% for Kast, with 25% undecided. In the last week of the campaign, exit polls are banned, and this was the last to run before the ban period.

At 51, Jean Herivoux is Haitian and has been in Chile for over 15 years. He lives in Quilicura, a region located to the north of the metropolitan region of Santiago, which is home to so many Haitians that it is called Little Haiti. “We have come a lot in recent decades, because of poverty, violence, climate tragedies. Today, people continue to come, but there are many who want to leave, because of prejudice, racism and because everything has become more expensive and more difficult here with the pandemic . Many are informal, lost their jobs and were left with nothing”, says the merchant.

On the streets of Quilicura, the shops have signs in French, and a mixture of languages ​​is heard on the streets. Small Haitian food restaurants bring residents together at lunchtime.

Herivoux says that he has a cousin who, already tired of trying to make a living in Chile, decided to leave with a group of Haitians first for Colombia. There, from the port of Necoclí, he crossed the dangerous region of Darién and is in Panama, trying to enter the United States.

“It’s the dream of many here, especially the younger ones. Going away. I, people my age or older, think it’s better to stay in Chile, because we already have something here, we’ve settled in and this trip is very difficult, as well as not knowing how we will be received in the US”.

According to the Department of Migration, there are 1.4 million migrants in Chile, equivalent to 7% of the population. This number has been growing every year. In 2009, there were only 200 thousand. About 66% of Chileans believe that immigration is a bad thing for the country. In 2009, this figure was much lower, at 44% (according to a Pulso Ciudadano survey).

Piñera’s administration was dubious with regard to immigrants. In his campaign to support Juan Guaidó against dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, which began in 2019, the president promised to receive Venezuelans who came for political reasons or because of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. He even met Colombian President Iván Duque in Cúcuta, on the border between Venezuela and Colombia, and in a speech said that Venezuelans would be welcomed in Chile.

In practice, however, the reality was different. Venezuelans arriving in the country are given a citizenship document valid for one year, but there is little guarantee that the person will have job opportunities or access to housing. With the economic crisis generated by the pandemic and the increase of protests in the north of the country, Piñera decided to promote the deportations of illegals, which generated expressions of repudiation by the opposition and international organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations.

In Kast’s campaign speech, immigrants are associated with delinquency and lack of work. His narrative fits the reaction of Chileans who set out to burn Venezuelans’ belongings in Iquique. But, according to Herivoux, Kast is also in tune with a feeling he sees among other immigrants, who have been in the country longer. “There are people who arrive, settle and then don’t want more people to come. Even though they are foreigners, and many of them don’t vote, this group thinks that Kast will organize the economy and prevent more outsiders from coming in to take the few jobs that there is,” he says.

Boric’s speech, on the other hand, is to address immigration as a broader problem, involving international relations and various ministries. In recent weeks, in his effort to win the support of center voters, the leftist has pledged more surveillance at the borders and saying he will be “relentless against crime and drug trafficking.” However, he claims that “Chile has a tradition of receiving immigrants that is historic” and that a new migration policy must be “fair and humane”.

.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you