Migration and Cities in Chile: Building Territories of Solidarity in Hostile Contexts

Abstract

This article analyzes practices identified at the territorial level in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile. These practices have successfully established infrastructures of solidarity between the national and migrant populations, resulting in what we refer to as territories of solidarity. Following Schillinger’s work (2020), we argue that within these territories, experiences of solidarity emerge through contentious processes stemming from daily coexistence in a group of informal settlements (known as campamentos in Chile), mutual support efforts, the creation of alliances, and the production of (counter)spaces and (counter)knowledge. These practices of solidarity take on configurations linked to the organized social fabric in this territory and to the relationships forged with governmental, institutional, and organized actors at different levels. This experience not only emerges and coexists but also suffers and resists hostile migration policies, along with a hegemonic discourse that criminalizes and otherizes migrants.