MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chileans among most intolerant towards immigration

Chile is one of the most intolerant Latinamerican countries with respect to immigration, according to a survey published late last week by the pollster Latinobarometro.

The organization's recent poll in 18 regional countries found that seven out of ten Latin Americans reject the presence of immigrants in their country. Ecuador and Costa Rica are the most intolerant countries towards newcomers, whereas Uruguay and Nicaragua appear to be highly tolerant towards immigrants. The study shows that only 35% of Chileans think foreigners should be able to have the same rights as they do. The concept of foreigners living in Chile is supported by 13% of the population, while only 9% of Chileans think that poor people from a different race should be able to come to their country. Additionally, only 28% of all Chileans back the idea of open regional migration in order to promote integration. Universidad Alberto Hurtado Sociologist Carolina Stefoni said Chileans' negative perception of immigrants is largely based on the growing Peruvian migration flow. The Peruvian migrants coming to Chile the majority of which are women, are generally poorer and from a different race, which results in a profound discriminatory attitude towards migrants in general. The number of immigrants living Chile is now at its highest level in the country's history - 230,000 - due in no small measure to the country's political and economic stability. Large numbers of Peruvians, Bolivians and Colombians have immigrated to Chile in recent years. Victoria Martínez, who works with the Santiago-based Refugee Integration Services Program (PROSIR) (which deals mostly with Colombian refugees), told the Santiago Times that Chileans are getting more and more used to foreigners, although some xenophobic attitudes still must be dealt with. Because Chile is not used to large numbers of immigrants and has a history of unregulated emigration as a result of political repression, the country has few formally established migration policies. Meanwhile, the ones in force date from the times of the 1973-1990 Pinochet military government, which imposed stricter controls on foreigners as part of its political agenda. Still, the country's continuing economic growth and political stability combined with the increase in migration flows during the past decade are pushing the country to develop a more modernized and coherent migration policy. More than 40.000 illegal immigrants applied for amnesty in January. Those who are approved will enjoy all the benefits of being a Chilean citizen, said Interior Ministry Undersecretary Felipe Harboe earlier this year. This includes welfare benefits given to citizens classified as among the poorest 40% of the country. "We are working hard on the regularization process" said Harboe. "We are creating a consciousness that Chile is being converted into a multicultural society. Right now Chilean society discriminates". In an effort to help the immigration process, Chile's government has opted to delete any reference to "immigration status" when issuing newcomers their national identity (or R.U.T.) card. "This helps immigrants to integrate faster and to avoid discrimination," said Martínez. Additionally, a group of Palestinian refugees arrived in Chile's Region V city of La Calera earlier this month. The 38 refugees are the first of a total of 117 Palestinians who will arrive in Chile in the coming weeks. The Chilean government responded to a plea by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for countries to accept the Palestinians. The Santiago Times