Economic and mobility repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chile–Bolivia border

Abstract

This article analyzes how the pandemic caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted international migration. In particular, we compare the mobility and economic repercussions faced by Bolivian and Venezuelan migrants. We conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with migrants who requested legal and social support and advice provided by the Open Assembly of Migrants and Pro-Migrants of Tarapacá, Chile (AMPRO), an organisation dedicated to defending migrant rights. The Bolivian interviewees worked in Chile before the pandemic in the city of Iquique (close to the Bolivian border). The Venezuelan interviewees are undocumented people in transit who entered Chile during the pandemic. Through this comparison, we describe the economic repercussions on the everyday life, mobility, and survival strategies of people in transit, transboundary workers, and migrants with transnational families, and reveal a realignment of Chile’s border regime that benefits post-pandemic capitalism. Furthermore, we clarify how the health restrictions implemented due to the pandemic have favoured the reconfiguration of the border regime imposed in Chile, through a racist immigration policy based on the control and management of migration, leading to a greater irregularization of migration.