Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC): University Magazine portrays the migratory phenomenon with a special edition

The latest issue of the University Magazine is already in circulation , a special dedicated to a central theme of today’s Chile: Migrants. With a central interview with the last Nobel Prize winner in Economics, David Card , who was rightly distinguished for investigating its impact on jobs and salaries, at a time when many human beings, due to hunger or fear of violence, leave their homes to embark on a uncertain adventure.

The migrant phenomenon has put in check the culture of human rights, the responsibility of international organizations, the humanitarian sentiments of societies with more resources, and incidentally, it has also encouraged nationalist movements.

The migrant phenomenon has put in check the culture of human rights, the responsibility of international organizations, the humanitarian sentiments of societies with more resources, and incidentally, it has also encouraged nationalist movements among those who see in its streets, with annoyance or outrage, many people who are not “people like one”. Europe, the United States, but now also Chile, have been forced to adopt urgent policies in this regard, while numerous needy families crowd the border posts hoping for a safer life.

In a parallel reality, many also migrate for a better life; as the GDP of developed countries is ten times higher than the rest, there are millions of migrants who only want a permanent job so that their children can grow up without anguish; the borders of the global world have become porous.


This issue addresses different realities associated with the migrant phenomenon. From the positive image of Chile that attracted thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans who had to cross half the continent, to the crisis that was generated in Colchane when countless families that managed to get there crossing jungles, high mountains and deserts were overcrowded; from the “migratory corridors” that migrants seek to move around avoiding arrests, to the racist and xenophobic sentiments that they arouse in the countries of arrival. Likewise, a text was included that reviews the data related to a certain public image that tends to link immigrants with criminal activities.


This edition also addresses the changing sense of nationality in an increasingly fluid and often precarious world, and the testimonies of immigrants of diverse origins who are already here, with experiences where triumphs and frustrations are mixed.

An article addresses the difficulties to generate new legislation in a country that, like Chile, was far from the migratory routes, and also a journey through the phenomenon in history, modest but significant, from when Chile tried to attract Europeans and when, more Later, it was a refuge for Palestinians, Jews and Spanish Republicans.

It includes the psychological impact suffered by an individual who leaves the city, family and networks of friends to face the experience of the unknown -often discriminatory-, and the experience of migrant children who are born or are growing up in a country that, due to its appearance, or accent, perceives them as foreigners.