Chile has become an important destination country for migrants, especially from Venezuela.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), the migrant population has doubled in seven years, reaching 8.8% of the total population in this country of 20 million in 2024.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this is the second highest proportion of foreign residents in a Latin American country after Costa Rica.
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Venezuela is the main country of origin of immigrants in Chile (41.6%), followed by Peru (14.5%) and Colombia (12.3%).
According to official estimates, around 337,000 immigrants are undocumented. The majority entered the country via the northern border with Bolivia and Peru, an area where the Boric government deployed the army in early 2022.
The issue is at the heart of the election campaign as a majority of Chileans link rising crime to irregular immigration.
The massive and accelerated arrival of South American and Caribbean immigrants (mainly Venezuelans and Haitians) to Chile over the past decade has significantly changed the country’s society, economy and political landscape. Chile, traditionally a country of emigration, became the main recipient of migration flows in the region.
Consequences. Between December 2014 and the same month in 2018, the foreign population in Chile doubled from 490,000 to more than 1.25 million people, with the number of Venezuelans and Haitians accelerating. This phenomenon had several consequences.
On the one hand, experts explain, it contributed to demographic growth and rejuvenated the Chilean population, contributing a significant share to the overall growth between 2010 and 2020. In addition, immigrants expanded the workforce, often filling front-line jobs and important positions.
Although a large part of the migrant population (particularly Venezuelans) has a high level of education (with a high percentage of skilled workers), many face obstacles in homologating their qualifications, leading to underemployment or informal jobs with low salaries.
Pressure on services. The concentration of the migrant population has led to greater demand for public services such as health and education, forcing municipalities to adopt special measures (e.g. Haitian-Creole interpreters in schools and hospitals).
An increase in informal settlements or camps can also be observed in regions with a high influx of migrants, such as Antofagasta.
A relevant societal impact is the growing hostility and xenophobia towards migrants, with a widespread societal perception linking their arrival to an increase in public insecurity and the emergence of forms of crime previously less common in Chile.
This perception, often fueled by political discourse, is supported by the arrival of some criminal groups from Venezuela, such as the famous Aragua train, which led to an increase in crime.
The political dispute. The rapid and disorderly increase in migration made it clear that Chile had not had a consistent immigration policy for years. This led to heated debates at the political level.
The political debate focused on the tension between the state’s obligation to protect the human rights of migrants (left) and the need to exercise state sovereignty to control borders and regulate access to residency and citizenship (right).
Analysts note that the policy response has oscillated between attempts at greater openness (driven by labor and economic demand) and pressure from domestic forces to impose tighter controls, prioritizing migration selectivity and attempting to prevent migrants from quickly acquiring rights and citizenship.
Irregular migration through unauthorized border crossings, particularly in the north of the country, has become a focus of great controversy in Chile, prompting governments to implement measures such as increased military surveillance at the borders and deportation plans, which have been the subject of intense political and media controversy.
The migration phenomenon has been established as a central axis of the political and electoral agenda and has been used by various currents, often from more conservative positions, to capitalize on the social unrest associated with the perception of insecurity and pressure on services.
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