Indigenous Border Migrants and (Im)Mobility Policies in Chile in Times of COVID-19

Carlos Piñones-Rivera (), Nanette Liberona, Rodrigo Arancibia and Verónica Jiménez
Additional contact information
Carlos Piñones-Rivera: Escuela de Psicología y Filosofía, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica 1000000, Chile
Nanette Liberona: Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica 1000000, Chile
Rodrigo Arancibia: Cooperativa Apacheta, Iquique 1100000, Chile
Verónica Jiménez: Programa de Doctorado en Psicología, Escuela de Psicología y Filosofía, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica 1000000, Chile

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: The commodification of healthcare and the structural violence towards the migrant population in the Chilean system materialize in a series of structural barriers to accessing healthcare. In the face of this structural vulnerability, cross-border health mobility is one of the primary resources of indigenous border migrants living in the Tarapacá region (Chile). This involves crossing the border of both people (specialists/patients) and objects (such as ritual supplies or biomedicines), which play a crucial role as, in many cases, it is the only way to satisfy their healthcare needs. The security-orientated geopolitics of border closure (Plan Frontera Segura) has been reinforced by immobility policies linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. While doing so leaves people without the fundamental resource of healthcare mobility or obliges them to cross the border via unauthorized crossings, exposing them to criminalization and abuse by different agents of violence (the military, people smugglers, etc.). In this paper, we will offer a description of these processes of (im)mobility, analyzing their conformation both by the current policies of the Chilean State and by the notorious deficiency in indigenous and migrant rights, denouncing the material impact they have on the health/illness/care process of indigenous migrants.

Keywords: healthcare mobility; borders; immigrant health; indigenous health; structural violence; structural vulnerability; social determinants of health; health inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9728/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9728/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9728-:d:882458

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().