26 Global News Post 1

Chile Rejects the Migrants It Once Welcomed

Muñoz, I. (2021). [Venezuelan migrants board a Chilean Air Force plane as they are deported after illegally crossing the border between Bolivia and Chile] MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/2021/04/12/chile-has-new-immigration-law-after-eight-years-in-congress

In the past few years, Chile has recieved an influx of migrants given the political and economic unrest in surrounding countries, especially Venezuela. In fact, migrants make up approximately 7.5% of the Chilean population. In 2018, the government announced that they would accept Venezuelan migrants with open arms in the same way Venezuela did to Chileans in the past. However, this is no longer the case.

A new migration law was put into effect in October 2021. This law grants legal status only to migrants who entered the country before March 2020. Any other migrants are given 180 days to leave the country and are not given any sanctions. The government has spent extensive money on this explusion, including the rental of planes to expel these immigrants.

This new law was justified by the Chilean president, who claimed that migrants were organizing crime, smuggling, and disrespecting the country’s laws. The problem with this statement is that it spreads xenophobia and racism throughout the country. Some Chileans call themselves “whiter” than other Latinxs, while describing those from different places as “dirty”. This goes to show that there are obvious repercussions of the migration laws put into place by the government, and it is raising concern amongst the National Human Rights Institute and other related groups.