Who are the new neighbors? Chile guts the largest regular migratory flow in its history

Chile closed the key to the largest migratory flow in its history in 2020.

In four years it received a million regular migrants, reaching a total population of 19 million.

The new neighbors, coming mostly from Venezuela, Haiti and Colombia, choose the South American country for economic and labor reasons, according to the results of the 2022 National Migration Survey published this week.

Most intend to stay and a third are planning to bring a relative in the next five years, which would mean another 400,000 immigrants.

The report raises a red flag about “productive waste”: Less than half of college-educated foreign-born residents perform jobs commensurate with the profession.

If in 2015 there were 500,000 regular migrants in Chile, by 2019 the figure reached one and a half million.

The abrupt demographic change prompted the World Bank and the National Migration Service (Sernamig), with the support of the Center for Longitudinal Studies of the Catholic University, to carry out a survey of the foreign population over 18 years of age who arrived in the country between 2016 and 2020, the period in which the highest peak occurred: They are on average 35 years old, 78% are salaried workers and more than 90% receive social security contributions.

The size of the households is three members and six out of 10 migrants send remittances to their countries of origin, where they have someone who depends economically on them.

David Bravo, director of the UC Center for Longitudinal Studies,

In the short term, family reunification may make job opportunities the main reason for migrating to Chile, as is already the case in the Peruvian population.

"One in three have very specific plans to bring those people who depend on them: children, partner or parents," Bravo said this Friday in a telephone conversation and added: "using the data we collected, we are talking about that close to 400,000 people could come just by inertia in five years”.

A key feature is the high rate of migrants with higher education.

"It is explained because half come from Venezuela, the nationality with the highest proportion of people with higher education (64%)," says the economist.

Most have completed studies in engineering and technology.

However, 45% of all migrants with this level of education carry out tasks consistent with their profession, which shows a "productive waste of migrant workers," the document points out.

There is a 27% gap regarding the performance of their professions in the country of origin versus in Chile, led by Bolivians, Colombians and Haitians.

”One of the most important findings of the survey is the fact that only 12% have completed the title validation procedures.

That is an important limitation”, adds the economist.

The cumbersome revalidation process discourages most migrants, due to the complexity of the requirements, the cost and the length of the process.

The only group that presents a validation percentage above the total result is the Colombian, explained by the existing agreements with this country.

“The strong migratory flow has made it clear that we have to re-evaluate all those procedures established in a different era, when there were 150,000 foreigners in Chile.

This can be translated into less possibilities of income and employment”, points out Bravo.

The director of the National Migration Service, Luis Eduardo Thayer, remarked in the presentation of the results that the potential benefit of migration for development is being diminished by the processing of titles.

“We are also concerned about the high discrimination in the work environment, since migrants are in an environment in which they actively contribute to the country, and in this labor participation there is also a significant gender gap,” he pointed out.

Colombians are the ones who most accuse having suffered discrimination at any time and also particularly because of their nationality, followed by Haitians.

Regarding illegal migration, nearly 50,000 foreigners went to the authorities in 2021 to voluntarily declare their clandestine entry into Chile.

The north is the main gateway, the epicenter of a crisis particularly in Colchane, a small town of 1,700 inhabitants on the border with Bolivia and the city of Iquique.

However, many people do not declare their income, so civil society organizations estimate that the figure is at least double.

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