Chile’s Welcoming Approach to Immigrants Cools as Numbers Rise

Image of Flag of Chile from Wikimedia Commons

Before the pandemic, I visited universities in Chile on several occasions.  During the visits, I was told that many Chileans were concerned with new waves of immigrants to Chile.  In Chile’s Welcoming Approach to Immigrants Cools as Numbers Rise, Cristián Doña-Reveco reports that Chile has emerged as a major immigration destination within South America. Recent arrivals from Haiti and Venezuela have shaken the country’s politics and at times overwhelmed an immigration framework that critics contended was out of date. New reforms could tighten immigration, but many questions remain.

According to the report,

“The foreign born in Chile now make up a larger share of the country’s population than any other country in South America, and the second largest in the broader Latin America and the Caribbean region, after Costa Rica. In absolute terms, the foreign-born population in Chile is Latin America’s third largest, behind those in Argentina and Colombia. This population has expanded twelvefold since 1992 and more than quadrupled since 2012.”

KJ