Citizenship education in Chile and the problematization of immigration

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the problematization of immigration in citizenship education in Chile. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogy of problematizations, we explore the conditions under which curricular discourses about immigration shifted from a historical phenomenon that emphasized “the civilization process” during the 19th century to a more recent positioning of immigration as a problem of social inclusion in the 1990s. We propose that immigration was produced as a problem of social inclusion because of the existence of an “immigrant-free national community” narrative that racializes populations. To pinpoint the origin of this narrative, we trace discursive practices regarding immigration by analyzing the social studies curriculum, policy recommendations, and political statements regarding immigration. We argue that the shift from conceptualizing immigration as a historical phenomenon to a problem of social inclusion was possible since the neoliberal discourses of the 1990s created hesitations about the “immigrant-free national community” narrative. The social inclusion narrative posits that, in a globalized world, the Chilean national community, supposedly untouched by immigration, would be unavoidably at risk because of (new) immigration influxes. Immigration became a problem, and citizenship education was positioned as a solution to deal with the perceived expansion of cultural diversity.