MARIANGELA’s eyes fill with tears as she talks about her parents in Venezuela. A pre-school teacher, she arrived in Chile three months ago with her husband and two children. They live with 48 other immigrants, mainly Venezuelans, in a refuge run by an evangelical church in Puente Alto, a poor district on the outskirts of Santiago. The corrugated-iron rooms are stuffed with bunk beds and mattresses. There is just one bathroom. Children play on a dusty patio among discarded bits of wood and metal and an abandoned sofa.
Despite the discomfort she has to endure, Mariangela feels lucky. She has found work in a shop and her children are going to a municipal school and to a nursery that has waived its fees. “I heard that Chileans were snobs but I have been treated only with kindness,” she says, pointing at her olive-toned skin.
Chile has recently become a magnet for migrants. From 2007 to 2015 the number of immigrants living in Chile increased by...Continue reading
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