Afro-Descendant Migrants in Santiago, Chile: Stigma Processes and Rhetorical Resistance

Summary

This exploratory study seeks to demonstrate the mechanisms which lead to reduced life chances for marginalized groups, as well as to understand how they negotiate stigma perspectives that suggest their identities have been devalued. It provides a qualitative empirical account of the experiences of Afro-descendants presently living in Santiago, Chile, and contributes to the debate on the realities of migrants in Latin America from the perspective of an understudied, often marginalized and excluded population. Forty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with adult migrants of visibly of African-descent (27 female, 22 male) from 4 continents and 15 countries, between April and May 2013. The interviews lasted an average of 25 minutes each and were conducted in Spanish or English. While this study can only provide a snapshot into the  lives of some Afro-descendant migrants living in Chile, preliminary findings suggest that this population is experiencing racism and xenophobia, with which they must regularly contend, and that the strategies they employ to cope with their exclusion from society have the effect of both reinterpreting their own realities and contesting the negative stereotypes used to disparage them.