The Scalabrini Foundation in Chile
The Scalabrini Foundation carries out collaborative work for the good of the migrant and refugee population in Chile with a commitment to inclusion and integration. The Foundation is a non-profit institution of the Congregation of San Carlos Borromeo, Scalabrinians.
With a presence both in the north and in the center of Chile, the foundation’s mission is to guide migrants through an integrative process that connects them to accommodations, legal, spiritual and psychological guidance, training and support. The Foundation is a member of the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN).
Centro Multipropósito de la Fundación Scalabrini
The Multipurpose Center is located in the Providencia district (seminary 611), a central and accessible district. Formerly, the center was a shelter for male migrants called the Integrated Migrant Care Center, CIAMI, but the need to have a physical space where the activities of the Foundation were centralized, reappointed the space as a multipurpose center from where legal advice (immigration and labor), social care (emergent and follow-up of cases) and workshops and activities take place.
During the pandemic, the Scalabrini Foundation and its Multipurpose Center have been at the forefront of care for the most vulnerable families, delivering more than 70 food baskets per month, shelter kits, clothing, kitchen, and protection kits from Covid-19.
CIAMI – Centro Integrado de Atención al Migrante
Both in Arica and Santiago, the foundation provides emergency assistance in basic services such as merchandise and hygiene kits, psychological and legal assistance, and accommodation for the migrant population and refugee families. The CIAMI of Santiago houses women of legal age, with a capacity for 50-60 women, in which a job search service is also provided through the Employment Exchange.
The employment assistance is also supported by legal advisors who assist both the employee and the employer. CIAMI Arica houses families, between 25 – 30 people, including children and adolescents.
While CIAMI Arica does not have a Job Bank, they do count with the support of third-party institutions that assist with referrals and aid. CIAMI has 6 years of experience in housing migrants, and working as a member of the Church of the Three Borders, where the migratory reality is monitored, along with the Red Cross, UNHCR, and IOM.
Parroquias: Latinoamericana, Pompeya e Italiana.
The parishes promote the national holidays and patron saints of each Latin American country. The parishes are also sites where food, clothing and immediate basic needs are accessible for those in need in Chile.
During the pandemic, the parishes worked with the organization, “Humanitarian Nucleus” to generate a food collection and distribution of goods to the population, both national and foreign, most affected by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the parishes have contributed to the development of common kitchens in the neediest communes and neighborhoods.
“Migration gives the migrant person the world as a homeland”– Beato Juan Bautista Scalabrini
Latina Republic had the opportunity to interview María Talón Villacañas, a representative of the Scalabrini Foundation to gain insight into the history, mission, and the work of the Foundation, and to learn about the unique migrant and refugee challenges in Chile, and the general region.
LR: What is the history of the Scalabrini Foundation in Chile?
MTV: The Scalabrini Foundation can be traced back to the Movement of Juan Bautista Scalabrini, an Italian missionary who dedicated himself to helping Italian people reintegrate or rather, integrate, into Latino society.
By the 60’s the mission grew beyond the Italian population, and opened the spectrum to other migrant population. It didn’t make sense to help just one population, because the phenomenon of human mobility exists across the whole world regardless of nationality.
LR: Who are the migrants and refugees who come to Chile? How does the Scalabrini foundation support them?
MTV: The profile is varied because Chile has several characteristics. The first is that the first migration movement experienced in Chile has been an Andean migration, that is, from Peru and Bolivia, countries neighboring or closer to Chile.
So, this type of migration is called the feminization of migration, because it was entirely or mostly women from Peruvian or Bolivian nationalities looking for their place in the workplace. Chile, over time, does speak of a second era of migration more Colombian in nature, formed of Colombian refugees coming to Chile due to the internal conflict in the country of origin.
How do we know the people formalized as refugees? Normally, the definition signifies that the country of origin is undergoing a political conflict that represents a persecution, a vital risk for that person.
The second migration wave consisted of Cubans, Colombians and Dominicans. Now, the current third movement starting about five years ago, and currently, consists of a population of Venezuelan nationality and of Haitian nationality, also with very strong characteristics of international protection, that is, of refugee status. But yes, historically Chile has received the first type of migration as labor driven, and the second as an asset of international protection, with the character of refuge.
And with this third mixture, they all intertwine. And it does not mean that one began and ended and started another, but they were accumulating, not only the kind of nationalities that thought of Chile as an attractive country.
Chile, geographically, is the last country in the continent, along with Argentina, as the last loophole to reach, and there is also a somewhat characteristic economic policy differentiation with respect to other countries.
The refugee women are more highly vulnerable because they suffer from persecution, from a vital danger to which they are already exposed along their migratory journey and what they are looking for is international protection from the country to which they arrive.
This group is one of higher vulnerability, there is a more specific, more professional level of action required, The discourse is usually the improvement of the quality of life, of its resources, of wanting to create a different future.
LR: How do the migrants who arrive in Chile find you? Do you provide shelter and legal and psychological support? How long do you provide accompaniment to the refugees?
MTV: In 2019 we started a partnership agreement with UNHCR. We created a platform in terms of communication, services and inter-institutional networks. The UNHCR helped us a lot by making the work we do visible. This helped us at the communicational level, for example, launching the website, creating the social networks and supporting each other, creating a network among several partners that help migrants.
So, a strong point to bring up is the value of the social networks. The migrant uses them a lot, to stay updated, to see the routes, to read comments from other migrants, experiences, etc. They can get to know great institutions like, UNHCR. A stream of information is created in the country of origin and countries where migrants transit until they reach Chile.
We have a lot of contact with churches already established in all Latin American countries and the first source of arrival usually tends to be parishes. They are not usually small churches, they are larger churches that help displaced migrants, refugees.
Then also both social networks and word of mouth as well as previous experiences of other people who have already been cared for, help us connect with the migratory or displaced flow that arrives here. Online presence is important to help migrants and migrant associations and foundations.
Then one can already enter the web and see the services offered, even call, see what it is about, see if it fits a bit with your needs. For people who lack the internet or a device such as a cell phone or a telephone, word of mouth works a lot, for example, when they arrive at the border or when they are in their transit in other countries they wander or go, as I said, to the parishes or the aid centers, for example Cáritas or the Red Cross, which are usually the best known in other countries, the UNHCR itself, the IOM and they give them our contact numbers or our addresses.
LR: How long is the citizenship process for migrants in Chile? Can they legally work as soon as they arrive?
MTV: That’s an interesting topic, because it involves certain topics politically and involves a certain level of government criticism. Answering that question is always good. The immigration system is divided in two: the people who entered irregularly and the people who entered the country with a regular status. The people who enter regularly can be professionals, students, tourists, that is, they enter through a passage enabled by the country.
For instance, in my country of origin I can go to the Chilean consulate, I tell them that I want to work in Chile and ask, “Can you please tell me what papers do I need to get a visa?” and I can be assisted there, too, if I wish to come as a student. I can also go to the consulate of Chile in my country, in Spain, or in Germany, and process a visa that I can use to enter here.
The type of visa for a professional or a student that comes to Chile would mean that with that visa they would enter in a regular way through the airport or via terrestrial routes, with papers and then I would follow the process in the country, to finish regularizing my status 100 percent.
There is also another way that is the way to enter as a tourist. Certain nationalities have restrictions, others do not. That is another issue that must be dealt with, but most can buy a ticket and come to Chile and stay as a tourist for 90 days.
If at the end of my tour I want to change my migratory status. I need in those 90 days to get the necessary papers to change tourism to a visa, the appropriate visa, subject visa, contract, professional visa, and so on. But everything is determined by the way you enter the country by regular passage or by irregular entry.
The people who have the most difficulty regularizing their status and who have the most need are the people who enter irregularly. They are usually the people who come from a country of origin that does not extend the papers necessary as to previously request a visa.
For instance, now we have a lot Venezuelan migration and is impossible for them, for example, to get a passport, it is impossible for them to acquire documentation ahead of time. Likewise, Chile has certain restrictions for certain nationalities to enter the country. Restricted countries means you cannot come as a tourist.
So, going back to the topic of irregular entry into Chile, people who are forced to make this type of entry into the country enter through an undeclared border crossing. Those who arrive in Chilean territory this way have to go through a long and complex process, we are speaking of two to three years to regularize. They have it much more complex, because entering the country irregularly is classified as a crime.
So, once you enter the undeclared border, one goes to the PDI, an investigative police, declares himself, that is, he declares that he has done that type of entry within the country and a period of a precautionary signature begins. Already with that precautionary signature, weekly or monthly, what the Police do is determine that you have a permission to stay in the country.
There is a lot expected in that time, you must not fail your appointments, that’s why it is called a precautionary signature. And after that precautionary signature you receive an expulsion order, which is the process that all kinds of people will go through saying that they must leave the country, but that they have the possibility of appealing that expulsion order.
Then, that person would contact a lawyer, who could work free of charge, to revoke that expulsion order. Then a small window opens for all these cases to be able to process a visa with the Chilean Undersecretary of the Interior. Now, today there are many people who are undergoing that process.
When they are not granted regularization, because of how they entered Chile, then it’s a bit maddening. Frustrating, because it is not that they want to make an irregular type of entrance to the country; at the end of the day they want to regularize their status in the country, because that implies having a formal job, it involves making contributions, it involves social security, etc.
They can’t because of the impossibility of acquiring the required documents from their country of origin, and when they arrive in the host country, it takes two or more years to get regularized and there is still no case typified that has been regularized. Entering that way, the country is, after all, a fairly large mass of people, numerous and each time their numbers increase, it has many difficulties to achieve a real integration.
In the end, while these people are in the process, they still go to the supermarket and they buy and pay the tax and are also treated in health centers temporarily. But there is going to be a limitation in terms of depending on what services, for example labor that is a basic need for the family’s economy to regularize in the country. It is a somewhat frustrating subject to say the least.
LR: How easy / difficult is the integration of refugees in Chile? How does Chile support them and what are the challenges they face?
MTV: Well, the challenges are multiple, since the person still has multiple issues to attend to. The challenges are difficult to solve without public policy, without a position on the public agenda on the issue of migration, which after all, is not so much migration, but forced displacement.
What Chile is already seeing is not a migration of looking for a better quality of life, with preparation, with a power to collect documents, request a visa, rent an apartment or find a job. It is not a migration, it is more of a forced displacement and that entails a higher level of vulnerability for these populations.
There are bureaucratic and administrative barriers that prevent them from accessing that international protection. And even when they get it, there are still many deficiencies to overcome. So it is very complicated.
To learn more, contact the Foundation here: Scalabrini Foundation Chile:
To watch our interview in Spanish:
Director of Future Journalist ProgramVanessa Campa | Florida International University
Vanessa Campa is a recent graduate from Florida International University holding a Bachelor of Arts in English on the Writing and Rhetoric track, and a minor in Psychology. Through working for the Latina Republic as a Latin Correspondent, Vanessa has gained a true love and passion for reporting underreported stories in the region. Discovering underreported stories that will inspire her readers, she has specialized in interviewing and writing articles on outstanding Latinx women who have made an impact in their communities, especially immigrants. As a Director of the Future Journalist Program for the Latina Republic, Vanessa will continue carrying the organizations’ mission in changing stereotypes that have negatively impacted the people within the region, and bringing light to another side of Latin America that is concealed.
