海角大神

Seven years ago, Elcira Aro and her son left Peru, where she worked as a secretary and later as a street vendor, to find work in Chile. As a single mother, she struggled to scrape together the money to send her son to college.

鈥淚 came [to Chile] to get stability for my son,鈥� she says, as she eats lunch near her work cleaning houses in the upper-middle class Santiago neighborhood of Providencia. 鈥淚 had to make my son a professional, and I鈥檝e achieved that.鈥� Aro鈥檚 son is now an industrial engineer.

Aro is just one of the many immigrants who arrived in Chile over the past decade, a period in which the country鈥檚 immigrant population has nearly doubled. Now with President Michelle Bachelet鈥檚 reelection on Sunday and pending immigration legislation, the realities faced by those hoping to immigrate to Chile could soon change.

Chile has become a hot spot for immigration due to its economic stability and flexible rules allowing people to apply for work and permanent residency visas, says Daymler O鈥橣arrill, an economist who studied immigration to Chile while working at FLACSO, a Latin American think tank.聽People from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Argentina come seeking higher salaries, lower crime, and greater economic stability.聽

But, echoing age-old anti-immigration rhetoric from around the globe, opponents say the new arrivals are taking away key jobs, putting downward pressure on wages, and causing increased crime.

In conducted by Santo Tom谩s University that included five cities in northern Chile, 59 percent of those surveyed said that immigration is negatively affecting the country; 76.4 percent wanted more restrictive immigration legislation. The cities polled included聽Antofagasta, which witnessed soccer-related street fights between Colombian immigrants and Chileans this fall that resulted in an anti-immigrant march there.

Aging population, low birth rate

President-elect Bachelet has said she plans legislation that shifts the focus from 鈥渟ecurity and controlling immigrant labor鈥� to 鈥渋nclusion, regional integration, and rights.鈥�

Her opponent, Evelyn Matthei, who garnered 38 percent of the vote, took a harder line. In a speech in Antofagasta in October, she said immigrants should be required to have work visas before they enter the country in order to 鈥渟ee what their criminal histories are.鈥� Immigrants who commit crimes in Chile 鈥渟hould be left on the border and never allowed to return," she said.聽

Mr. O鈥橣arrill says claims that immigrants contribute to unemployment and crime rates are unfounded. He says immigrants come to 鈥渢ake care of Chile鈥檚 needs.鈥� Chile has an and low birth rate: In 2012, the country recorded 14.28 births per 1,000 persons, down from over 17 in 2,000 and well below the global average of 19.15. As a result, the country鈥檚 labor force is shrinking, and new arrivals fill the gaps, O鈥橣arrill says.

Immigrants from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador work primarily in retail, health care, and domestic employment. Those from Argentina and Spain tend to work as professionals or engineers in the country鈥檚 mining sector, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Aro came to Chile with only a tourist visa and found work upon arrival, which helped her application for a temporary work visa. In 2007, she received a permanent visa when Bachelet declared a general amnesty for foreigners residing in the country. She granted the amnesty in order to put a stop to the abuse of undocumented workers by their employers and also to improve relations with neighboring countries, whose governments were pressuring Chile to regularize the immigration status of their emigrants.

That amnesty benefited 50,000 people, 32,000 of whom were Peruvian, and it鈥檚 a point of contention for many Chileans. Jorge Figueroa Cruz, president of Chile鈥檚 Committee to Defend National Sovereignty, calls it a 鈥減erdonazo鈥濃�攁 鈥渉uge pardon鈥濃�� which has led to lower wages and more drug trafficking in Chile.

A bill currently before Congress aims to update immigration legislation, which dates back to 1975. The bill focuses on the need for workers in certain sectors: It would recognize more foreign diplomas, would require foreigners to apply for a work visa before arriving, and would add a new visa category specifically for temporary workers.

Idenilso Bortolotto, vice-president of the Chilean Catholic Immigration Institute, says the requirement that foreigners have work visas before entering is based on Canada and Australia鈥檚 immigration laws, a change which is largely supported, especially in the north.

Yet, 鈥淐hile isn鈥檛 like Canada or Australia,鈥� Mr. Bortolotto says. 鈥淐hile has long borders, so, no matter what the legislation is, people will enter the country, and they鈥檒l enter without documents. 鈥� It鈥檚 better to have legislation that fits the regional context.鈥�

Rodolfo Noriega, founder and president of the Committee of Peruvian Refugees in Chile, says the temporary workers鈥� program would also lead to an increase in undocumented immigration.

鈥淲hen you decide to migrate, to break those strong ties to your family, to your customs, it鈥檚 a clean break, as you think this will be for a long time, not for a short time,鈥� Mr. Noriega says. He predicts that immigrants would come with temporary visas and then stay without permission.

Aro, for one, says she鈥檚 here to stay. She鈥檚 saving money to buy a house, which she calls 鈥渁 long-overdue goal,鈥� and then she wants to retire. After seven years here, she鈥檚 home in Chile.