Migration in Antofagasta: Living on a porous border as a strategy of resistance

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, the constant increase in the influx of Latin American migrants to Antofagasta has entailed occupying the marginal spaces of the city. In view of this, this article looks at the spaces that they mainly inhabit, asking how they have managed to remain and live in these marginal spaces. The methodological approach is comparative and is structured from the narrative of the migrants themselves, analyzing urban configurations and territorial occupation processes. The main findings indicate that their living transforms marginal spaces into migrant places since, on one hand, they form boundaries between the divergent practices of the State and migrant living and, on the other, they define a condition of porosity, understood as a process of articulation, identity recovery, and demand for the right to inhabit the city. Consequently, living on a porous border is transformed into a strategy of resistance.