Abstract

NAVARRETE YANEZ, Bernardo. Perceptions of Immigration in Chile. Lessons for Immigration Policy. Migr. Inter [online]. 2017, vol.9, n.1, pp.179-209. ISSN 2594-0279.

The purpose of this paper is to study what Chileans think about the growing immigration in their country. To this end, a telephone survey was applied to 1 110 citizens distributed throughout the country. The main findings indicate that citizens want to protect the cultural diversity that comes with immigration, but this occurs mostly at the level of individuals more than at a group level, similar to the model in the United States. Nevertheless, there is little clarity regarding the type of public policy that should be implemented in the country. Any such policy applied will face the challenge of combining weak multiculturalism with a state committed to protect social cohesion and promote the recognition of rights. Given that a telephone survey does not homogeneously cover all the social groups and segments of the national population, this limitation should be taken into account.

Keywords : immigration policy; integration models; telephone survey; cross-border migration; Chile.