Solidary and Collective Practices of Resistance - How civil society organizations challenge the migration system in the city of Iquique, Chile

Author

Marielena Groos

Title

Solidary and Collective Practices of Resistance - How civil society organizations challenge the migration system in the city of Iquique, Chile

University of A Coruña, 2022

Link to the thesis: http://kmelot.biblioteca.udc.es/record=b1737256~S1*spi

Abstract

The city of Iquique is currently characterized by a new migration phenomenon due to migrants entering through unauthorized border crossings since the border closure legitimized by pandemic prevention. Considering that global migration regimes have similar dynamics in different geographic locations but encounter different local processes, this thesis aims to analyze the specific materialization of the migration system in this local context. Therefore, I explore how civil society organizations challenge the migration system at the local level and what practices of resistance can be identified. To this end, problem-centered interviews were conducted with civil society organizations engaged in migrant struggles in the city. It was found that the migration system is challenged at the local level through various practices of solidary and collective resistance from below. However, it was also identified that the criminalization of solidarity as a tool of governmental migration control is a response to the local challenge of the migration system.

Keywords

civil society organization, migration regime, practices of resistance, criminalization of solidarity