Chile and Racism: Why So Many Haitians Are Leaving The Country

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Emmanuel Louis and his wife came to Chile about four years ago.

After the death of their son, they feel abandoned by the Chilean state

Photo: Pablo Rojas Madariaga

Emmanuel Louis worked as a model and artist in Haiti, and his family was not doing badly, he says.

But he and his wife were worried about their son.

He shouldn't grow up in a country full of chaos, violence and crime.

"In Haiti you won't get any further in life with a university degree, but with a weapon you can," says Louis.

“We were looking for a place that was safe for children.

And Chile is considered the oasis of security in South America. "

The 36-year-old Haitian and his wife came to Chile four and a half years ago to offer their then three-year-old son Emmaus a better future.

High economic growth, low crime and political stability once made Chile a popular destination for migrants from Haiti.

Between 2010 and 2017, the number of Haitian immigrants increased from 988 annually to 110,116 annually.

The severe earthquake in 2010, extreme poverty, everyday violence and the deployment of Chilean troops as part of a UN peacekeeping mission drove many people from the Caribbean country to Chile in South America.

"The blue helmet mission created a connection between the two countries," explains sociologist María Emilia Tijoux.

The Haitians had a positive image of Chile, as a hospitable and generous country, "but above all as a country where there is work," she says.

This hope has long since vanished.

The population with a migration background in Chile has almost tripled in the past five years.

People from Venezuela, Peru, Haiti and Colombia are pouring into the country.

But Haitians see to it that they get away.

In 2019, more of them traveled out than in for the first time.

Thousands have already left the country.

Many are currently on their way to the USA - often through the Darién Gap, a life-threatening footpath through the jungle between Colombia and Panama, on to the USA-Mexico border.

From there, they are then often deported back to their home country.

Why do 85 percent of Haitians want to leave Chile, as a study by the Universidad Mayor in Chile shows?

Almost 80 percent of those wishing to leave said that their financial situation was bad or very bad. Most Haitians have to work illegally because they do not have a residence permit. They are paid less, have to work more overtime and have no health insurance. Louis works in a cleaning company. “Sometimes they don't pay us at all. We are treated like slaves, ”he says. "That's why so many leave."

In fact, according to a survey by the Center for Migration Studies at the Universidad de Talca, most Haitians in Chile find it more difficult to find work than other migrants.

The majority work in a different profession than in their home country.

Around half of the respondents feel discriminated against, mainly in the workplace.

The color of the skin is apparently the most common cause of discrimination.

Many Haitians also suffer from the language barrier as they often do not speak Spanish, only Creole.

And language courses cost money.

Emmanuel Louis also feels discriminated against because of his skin color and language.

In his living room in the Chilean capital Santiago there are pictures painted with brightly colored acrylic paint, and a romantic music video by a Haitian singer is playing on the television.

He fetches a large picture frame with a picture of a boy of elementary school age in it.

“This is my son Emmaus.

He died last year. ”The six-year-old drowned on January 26, 2020 while taking a swimming course in a public swimming pool, apparently a terrible accident.

"Nobody explained what happened to us because they assumed we wouldn't speak Spanish," says Louis fluently in Spanish, scratching candle wax from the glass of the picture frame with his fingernails.

His wife stands behind him, she doesn't want to speak.

In their greatest pain, the couple feel abandoned and betrayed by the land of their dreams.

They live in Quilicura, a district of Chile's capital Santiago, which was once called »Pequeño Haití« - »little Haiti« - because a particularly large number of Haitians lived there.

In the meantime, almost all of Louis' friends have run off to Mexico or the USA.

Some were deported back to Haiti.

When he meets a Haitian on the street, they greet him by saying: "When are you going to leave?"

Every morning a large crowd forms in front of the Haitian embassy in Santiago.

Haitians stand in line for documents they need for visa applications in Chile or in other countries, such as a police clearance certificate.

Many are afraid of being deported.

Nobody sits next to him on the bus, says one migrant

Even a man around 40, he would like to be called Mario Forestal, wants to travel to Mexico. He has been waiting for his residence permit for five years. "I can't work here without a visa and I can't live without a job," he says in broken Spanish. When he was working on a construction site, a Chilean colleague spat in his face. When he's on the bus, don't sit next to him. On the street people would shout "Chile for the Chileans" to him. Since right-wing President Sebastián Piñera came to power in Chile, the situation for Haitians has worsened. "The government wants to get rid of us," says Forestal.

The Piñera, who has ruled since 2018, has tightened immigration and visa policies, especially towards Haitians.

He passed a new immigration law that makes deportations easier.

Between April 2018, when immigration requirements for Haitians tightened, and December 2019, more than two-thirds of visa applications from Haitians were denied.

And gradually the population's rejection of migrants has also increased.

While around 35 percent were against people immigrating to Chile in August 2020, it was almost 57 percent in February 2021.

In September 2021, protesters set fire to the tents of migrants from Venezuela during a xenophobic protest in the northern city of Iquique.

There were also racist protests against immigrants in Santiago this October.

According to studies, the greatest concern of Chileans is that migration will increase crime and jeopardize their safety - although the reality is different: crime rates have not changed since heavy immigration.

Nevertheless, right-wing politicians are using the people's fear for the election campaign. In the presidential elections on November 21, the right-wing populist candidate José Antonio Kast received the most votes and will be in the runoff against the left-wing moderate candidate Gabriel Boric in mid-December. Kast is the son of a German Wehrmacht officer, a supporter of the Pinochet dictatorship, and he makes no secret of his admiration for the former US President Donald Trump and the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Part of his campaign is a ten-point plan against migrants. Among other things, he wants to dig a trench in northern Chile to prevent them from entering the country and to legally prosecute NGOs who help migrants.

Racism is deeply anchored in the history of Chile, says the sociologist María Emilia Tijoux: »At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, European, especially German migrants were brought to Chile so that they could mix with the local population and the› population improve ‹«, she says.

To this day, the Chileans only consider Latin Americans as migrants and as a threat, while Europeans do not.

"The nationalist ideology conveys the image of a homogeneous, European-influenced Chilean society and identity that is threatened by the migrants," says the sociologist.

This discourse is also being spread by the current government and by many media outlets: "TV stations and daily newspapers convey an image of migrants as criminals."

In the Estación Central neighborhood, the sidewalks are full of street vendors, many from Haiti.

They sell clothes, fruit and vegetables or chocolate bars and drinks to the drivers at the traffic lights.

For many, it's the only way to make money.

The 40-year-old Berline Coimin lives here with her two-month-old daughter in a small room.

In Haiti, she did not live in such a small area.

"But as a Haitian, the only thing you get here," she says, "is a tiny room with a kitchen and bathroom, all in one room."

During the pandemic, the precarious housing situation of Haitians has become even more visible.

Many live cramped, sometimes several families in one room.

They were also exposed to an increased risk of infection.

Landlords charge overpriced rents and when Haitians can't pay them, they put them on the street.

Almost all of Berline Coimin's friends emigrated because they had to wait years for their visas and couldn't work, she says.

“There is a prejudice here that all Haitians are poor - as if we are doomed to be poor forever.

They give us the hardest work and the smallest rooms, ”she says.

“Life here is miserable.

That's why so many go. «In the church in which she works there is no longer any mass for the Haitians - because hardly anyone comes.

Emmanuel Louis would also like to leave Chile, but he wants to await his son's trial.

"I had confidence that my child would be safe here," he says.

A group of teenagers had discovered the body of little Emmaus, who was floating lifeless in the pool.

The Ministry of Health then closed the pool due to a lack of safety measures - there were 200 children in the pool, but only one lifeguard.

Apparently no one had noticed little Emmaus's distress.

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