THE MICROPHYSIC OF BORDERS. CRIMINALIZATION, RACIALIZATION AND DEPORTATION OF COLOMBIAN MIGRANTS IN ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE

Abstract

The article aims to show how the relation between migration, security and deportation of a particular migrant group is build. The research focuses in the case of Colombians in Antofagasta, a mining city in the north of Chile. We argue that the criminalization of Colombian migrants is closely linked to a racialization process, so that validation and legitimacy of deportation and rejection at the boarders are part of the same process. Migrants are placed across multiple lines: race, ethnic, class, gender and territorial boundaries within the city, thus deportation and rejection are the result of a previous process of systematic exclusion.

We used a qualitative approach in this research, mainly through interviews with key informants, mostly actors linked to the generation and implementation of public policies —officials of the regional and local government, national legislators by the region, officials of the security forces, etc. —although not exclusively— also interviewed members of social organizations of and for migrants, some migrants living in informal settlements, Chilean neighbors and members of the Academy.

The analysis of this specific case brings to the understanding of the ways in which the global regime of migration control is articulated with local processes that define its specific materialization. The case of Antofagasta enables a reflection on what happens with the policies of migration control in contexts of inequality framed in extractive economies, and in a city that has had a historical presence of migrant population.