A really
important national topical issue is the higher rates of immigration in Chile,
which has been a very controversial topic because are a lot of people that aren’t
happy with this phenomenon. If you check the statistics of the web page of the
immigration department (Departamento de extranjería y migración, 2016) you can
see that the immigration rates are increasing and that has scared Chilean people.
But in the same document it says this numbers are lower than in other South
American countries. So, what are the people so worried about? I think that this
happen because is a new phenomenon that Balibar (in Balibar and Wallerstein,
1991) calls “neoracismo” (new racism) and it’s consist in the belief of the damage
that can produce the lack of borders between countries. This belief is not based
on biological heritage, but it is on the cultural differences that make life
styles incompatible. I think that currently it’s very common to hear this kind
of comments in Chilean people or read it in the social media. Also, in the
press you can see this implicitly, because even though they don’t necessarily show
a negative vision about this, in the news you can see the emphasis in the big
difference between Chilean people and the ones considers foreigners. And this
difference is even clearer with black people, and I think that is because the appearing
difference is even more obvious.
Regard this
topic, I think that is necessary a big change of mind, in which we doesn’t see
the difference like a threat, but as a contribution to our culture. In that
matter is absolutely indispensable have a new regulation, because I reject the
one made for Sebastián Piñera, because I think that have had very harmful consequences,
especially in the case of the people from Haiti. So, we need appropriate public
policies that protect immigrants and doesn’t discriminate them and at the same time a deep change of mindset.
I believe that foreign people enrich our country with culture. I prefer foreign people a thousand times than Chilean racists.
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