On the occasion of International Migrant Day, Cáritas and Red Clamor in Chile warned about the urgency of addressing the humanitarian challenges faced by thousands of migrant families, and supported the government’s decision to implement regularization measures.
Through a carta to the director of the newspaper El Mercurio de Chile published this Wednesday, December 18, Mons. Moisés Atisha, president of Cáritas Chile and Reference of Red Clamor in the Country, together with Sister. Gabriela Herrera and Father Pablo Walker, from the same organization, referred to the situation of migrants, remembering that Jesus was also born “far from his home.”
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The ecclesial leaders emphasized the contexts of dictatorships or economic crises that motivated many people to migrate, as well as, in the recent past, many Chileans sought refuge abroad, in search of a better future.
In this framework, they focused on the cases of irregular immigrants, who for years were taking steps to change that situation, facing economic and social uncertainty.
Immigration irregularity, they pointed out, causes consequences, especially in the children of these families, who face the risk of losing access to education, are forced to enter the informal work scheme, and even run the risk of being captured by networks. of organized crime.
“We are happy with the news that the Government has opened the alternative of a limited regularization to so many people who have not committed a crime and who honestly seek to live in our country, demonstrating their roots,” the letter states, while urging to have the necessary dialogues. so that, in care of sovereignty and in compliance with the law, the right to refuge, to the special protection of children and other vulnerable groups, is ensured.
Likewise, it calls for strengthening the consolidation of safe and regular migration, which contributes to peaceful coexistence.
This statement adds to what was expressed last weekend by the Archbishop of Concepción and Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Chile, Mons. Sergio Pérez de Arce, who supported the process of regularization of foreigners initiated by the government, and questioned the positions who oppose the measure.
Also in a carta published in El Mercurio, the prelate asked the authorities to implement “effective strategies” that allow the regularization of immigrants who do not have criminal or criminal records, taking as an example the more than 180,000 people who have registered in the biometric registration carried out In recent years, many of them have already integrated into Chilean society, with family, work and educational ties.
The archbishop considers that from both a human and economic point of view, regularization is essential, since they are essential workers for the functioning of Chile’s economy and “their full integration contributes to social stability and security.”
“It is difficult to understand the persistence of some to deny regularization. Maintaining irregularity exposes people to abusive conditions and more vulnerability, because they cannot enter into employment contracts or participate in economic life with complete normality. Nor does it contribute to the security of the country, because for the climates of trust and transparency that we need, a regular migrant is better than an irregular one, a fully integrated one than one who half knows oneself,” he stressed.
“Simply equating irregular immigrants with criminals is an unfair and simplistic fallacy,” stated Mons. Pérez de Arce, calling for “renewing efforts for a more just and inclusive country, and a more effective and less trench policy.”
In Chile, the last official statistics of migrants date back to December 2022, with 1,625,074 foreign people, who, in terms of composition by nationality, 32.8% were from Venezuela, 15.4% from Peru, 11.7% from Colombia and 11.4% of Haiti, according to the National Institute of Statistics and the Migration Service.
The proposal from the Government of Gabriel Boric aims to regularize around 182 thousand immigrants, who already underwent voluntary biometric registration in 2023, which made it possible to obtain their names and faces.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.