Racialized Representations of Migrants by the Local Police in Chile

Cristián Doña-Reveco, Macarena Bonhomme () and Liza Zúñiga
Additional contact information
Cristián Doña-Reveco: Office of Latino/Latin American Studies, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, NE 68106, USA
Macarena Bonhomme: Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES) ANID/FONDAP 1523A0005, Santiago 8330015, Chile
Liza Zúñiga: PhD Program on Social Sciences, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 7800284, Chile

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: In this article, we explore the racialized construction of migrants by the Carabineros , the Chilean national police. Based on a qualitative case study, we show that the representations of Latin American and Caribbean migrants by members of this institution are racialized and mostly framed on ideas of a historically constructed superiority. Drawing on interviews with police personnel from different units in Santiago, Chile, we show how the historical state racist policies on migration and systemic institutional racism are embedded in the Carabineros ’ discourse, who represent the state and law in their everyday interactions with migrants. Historically, this institution continues to be a strongly hierarchical and militarized police force, whose mission has been to defend territorial integrity and the moral, socio-historical, and cultural national identity, as well as to uphold the most important values of the so-called Chilenidad . We argue that the Chilean police frame their racialized representations of Latin American and Caribbean migrants within systemic institutional racism and socio-historical tropes, particularly from racialized, class, and moral perspectives that reproduce anti-immigrant sentiments and illustrate the ways in which migrants have been historically criminalized and treated in everyday life.

Keywords: migration; institutional racism; racialization; police (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/12/646/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/12/646/ (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:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:12:p:646-:d:1532860

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

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