Inclusive Language for Exclusive Policies: Restrictive Migration Governance in Chile, 2018

Abstract

Contemporary liberal democracies have employed exclusive or restrictive language, such as promising stricter border control, to ease domestic concerns about increased immigration, while simultaneously maintaining inclusive outcomes by accepting immigrants to support labor markets or to concur with global norms. Dynamic changes in migration flows disrupt this exclusive–inclusive balance known as the policy gap. Aligned with the South American shift since 2016 to more restrictive migration measures, in 2018, Chile’s new administration proposed legislation to replace the migration law, started a regularization process, and issued two executive decrees to change nationality‐specific visa procedures. We analyze the language, timing, and implementation of the decrees as units of analysis, juxtaposing their apparent versus actual purposes. Since Chile positions restrictive measures as protective of immigrants, this case of migration governance inverses the policy gap debate; now, inclusive language disguises exclusive outcomes.

Peaks and pitfalls of multilevel policy coordination: The South American Conference on Migration

“…For example, newly elected governments with different stances may attempt to reverse rights, such as in Argentina in 2017 (Cerrutti and Parrado, 2015), or implement more restrictive migration management measures through executive decrees, such as in Chile in 2018 (Finn and Umpierrez de Reguero, 2020).…”

“…Chile, Colombia, and Peru implemented ad-hoc special permits, but migrants face various problems in acquiring them (due to a lack of information, cost, location of requesting visa, obtaining necessary documents, etc.) (Freier and Parent, 2019;Finn and Umpierrez de Reguero, 2020;Freier and Castillo Jara, 2020). Since such visas were not previously required, they create barriers to intraregional mobility, thus missing a chance to solidify regional integration and ensure human rights.…”

Towards a typology of social protection for migrants and refugees in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…While these trends have been widely discussed in the European context (Ticktin, 2011 ), they are more recent in Latin America. The academic debates in the region have addressed the way in which some policies, while clothed in moral universals and humanitarian imperatives, are ultimately aimed at the management, control, and exclusion of mobile populations (Finn & Umpierrez de Reguero, 2020 ; Herrera & Berg, 2019 ; Ramirez, 2020 ; Stang et al, 2020 ). Indeed, with the advent of the recent Venezuelan and Central American exodus, the idea of a humanitarian crisis emerged across the region, with several studies and some international organisations claiming that the recent massive migration has been a response to numerous human rights violations and severely deteriorated socioeconomic conditions threatening survival (Freier, 2018 ).…”

Associativity and social capital in the multicultural context of Chilean migration 2014-2017 Social networks in the immigrant response?

“…Nos encontramos así aparentemente ante una política migratoria "fluctuante y errática" que buscaba reactivamente dar respuesta a situaciones contextuales que escapaban de la capacidad de gestión del Estado. Se podría decir que las medidas que se vienen implementando desde el año 2018 en la administración de S. Piñera hacen eco de esto, ya que están desarrollan una política mediante Decretos de Fuerzas de Ley con el que modifica el sistema de visas y coloca nuevos requisitos de ingreso a la comunidad haitiana, al igual que establecer un proceso de Regularización Extraordinario y Plan de Retorno para la comunidad haitiana (Finn y Umpierrez, 2020). Kalm (2008) es quien describe como las fronteras se han configurado en una invención humana sobre el territorio geográfico, desde la creación del mismo Estado en donde la concepción de poder y control han tomado un rol protagónico sobre los territorios.…”

“…Este cambio se ha originado a partir del 2015, cuando se triplicó el porcentaje de personas migrantes, y nuevamente entre 2015 y 2018 donde se duplicó, teniendo un total de 6.7% de inmigrantes dentro de la población total en 2018, inclusive donde aparecen nuevos grupos y perfiles migratorios de comunidades como la haitiana y la venezolana con una importante cantidad de AWARI: Revista de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Análisis de Redes Sociales Presentado en: 26 de julio de 2020 Aceptado en: 9 de septiembre de 2020 solicitantes de refugio, lo que no solo ha aumentado el flujo migratorio, sino que también ha diversificado sus perfiles y convertido a este país en un destino en la región. (Finn y Umpierrez, 2020). En el siguiente gráfico podemos ver el comportamiento de la tasa de migración y la variación anual mencionada: Gráfico 1: Migración anual y tasa de migración Chile 1950Chile -2010 Fuente: Finn y Umpierrez (2020, p. 5).…”