The Ordeal of Migrants

Guerra, Arnaldo Pérez
http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=7428
Date Written:  2017-06-14
Publisher:  Latin America Press
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21091

Migrants face prejudices, xenophobia and racism, besides bureaucratic obstacles that do not recognize their qualifications.

Abstract: 
-

Excerpt:

In Revista Sur, journalist Bárbara Barrera, denounced that in Calle San Luis, in the community of Quilicura, nearly one-hundred immigrants live in "overcrowded conditions, in a 5 square meters room that costs them 130,000 pesos a month (US$195), where they share two bathrooms and a kitchen. Guedelin Orzil, Haitian, had to give birth in a wheelchair in San José Hospital, because the healthcare personnel did not tend to her. Her infant son fell onto the floor and the hospital did not run any tests. Situations like these ones put in evidence the need for public policies to make it possible to improve the quality of lives of immigrants."

According to Noriega, the joint report of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) "Employment Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean," published on May 11, provides a piece of already confirmed information: 79 percent of immigrants in Chile have an education level of 10 years or more, but a big majority work performing manual labor and domestic work.

"There are a series of barriers preventing immigrants with qualifications and specializations to find employment in their professions or fields," Noriega says. "The first one is to have a formalized residence and identity documents. Another problem is the recognition of studies and degrees. So basically this situations of over-qualification converge with an irregular immigration status, the no recognition of completed studies, a situation that affects all, but mostly Peruvians, Colombians and Bolivians, and in particular the language barrier that affects non-Spanish speakers like Haitians, Nepalese, Filipinos and Africans."
Insert T_CxShareButtonsHorizontal.html here