- Title: Migrants find poverty, exclusion in South America's copper capital
- Date: 31st May 2017
- Summary: ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE (RECENT) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF WAVES CRASHING AT NATIONAL MONUMENT (THE STONE OUTCROPPING) KNOWN AS THE "PORTADA DE ANTOFAGASTA" MONUMENT KNOWN AS THE "PORTADA DE ANTOFAGASTA" GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY OF ANTOFAGASTA NEAR THE SEA GENERAL VIEW OF THE HIGHEST PART OF THE CITY OF ANTOFAGASTA WHERE THE MIGRANT CAMPS ARE LOCATED CHILEAN FLAG FLYING IN THE BREEZE VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WOMAN PUSHING A STROLLER COLOMBIAN MIGRANT, ANGELA MARIA CONCHA, PREPARING FOOD IN HER HOME MOTHER OF ANGELA MARIA LOOKING OUT FROM BEHIND A CURTAIN HOLDING A PUPPY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 36-YEAR-OLD PHOTOGRAPHER ANGELA MARIA CONCHA, SAYING: "The idea was to move up and progress. And one is sometimes swayed by rumours. When we got here, we found reality was different. It's not the way it's pictured there (in Colombia), that you'll find money as soon as you arrive, that you'll find work as soon as you get here because it's not like that, also times have changed. Before there were not so many immigrants, now there are a lot." GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY OF ANTOFAGASTA MIGRANT CAMPS ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY MAYOR OF ANTOFAGASTA, KAREN ROJO, SHOWING A MAP OF THE CITY AND POINTING OUT WHERE THE MIGRANT CAMPS ARE LOCATED CLOSE-UP OF MAP WHERE MIGRANT CAMPS ARE TAGGED (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ANTOFAGASTA MAYOR KAREN ROJO, SAYING: "In today's conditions, with the economic crisis our country is going through, the copper price falls, the Antofagasta labour market is not able to absorb all the immigrants who come today looking to improve their life chances. But there is a reality, one who knows the families. Migrants escape from situations affecting their countries, from the political point of view, from the economic point of view and they are also persecuted politically. But we also have another reality, we have the expectations of these professional migrants who come looking for work, work that Chileans stopped doing and it's also necessary to count with them." SIGN FOR "ECUACHILEP CAMP" WHICH PROVIDES SHELTER FOR MIGRANTS FROM BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, PERU AND CHILE MIGRANT WOMAN PUSHING STROLLER AND WALKING HER DAUGHTER TO SCHOOL ECUADOREAN MIGRANT, YOANA, INSIDE HER HOME IN THE "ECUACHILEP" CAMP (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ECUADOREAN MIGRANT, YOANA PAREDES, SAYING: "We are good people, working people, and we always end up stigmatized for being foreigners and (they think) we all come to commit crime or get up to no good over here. But there is a certain large population that wants to move forward, wants to get ahead, wants to work here and I believe these people should also be given opportunities so that they can stay in the country." GENERAL VIEW OF MIGRANT CAMP ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY CAT MIGRANT BOY RETURNING FROM SCHOOL EXTERIOR OF HOMES IN THE "BETZABE" CAMP PICTURE OF LATE SINGER, BOB MARLEY, HANGING ON HOME IN CAMP LITTLE GIRLS WALKING THROUGH CAMP VIEW OF CITY AS SHOT FROM INSIDE A MIGRANT HOME CAT SITTING ON A LEDGE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 46-YEAR-OLD VICE PRESIDENT OF "BETZABE" CAMP AND HUSBAND OF A BOLIVIAN MIGRANT, MIGUEL ANTIQUERA, SAYING: "Antofagasta is one of the most expensive cities in Chile. And that's why we were forced to move the camp, due to the scarcity of houses, which is the main thing we are fighting for." MIGRANT WOMEN WALKING IN CAMP MIGRANT CHILD WALKING UNDER LAUNDRY HANGING ON LINE IN CAMP MIGRANT WOMEN IN CAMP MIGRANT CHILDREN IN CAMP (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) 36-YEAR-OLD PHOTOGRAPHER ANGELA MARIA CONCHA, SAYING: "It's frustrating when you come and leave everything behind (in home country) family, siblings, dad, mother and you get here and it's not what you imagined." VARIOUS OF ANGELA MARIA AND SON LEAVING HOME IN CAMP GENERAL VIEW OF ANGELA MARIA AND SON LEAVING HOUSE WITH TIRES STACKED UP IN FOREGROUND GENERAL VIEW OF CITY OF ANTOFAGASTA OVERHEAD VIEW OF COAST AS SHOT FROM CAMP BIRD FLYING OVER THE WATER WATER GENERAL VIEW OF THE COASTLINE OF ANTOFAGASTA
- Embargoed: 14th June 2017 17:51
- Keywords: Latin American immigrants discrimination economy
- Location: ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
- City: ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
- Country: Chile
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016J66Q83
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Immigrants from around South America hoping to seek their fortunes in the continent's copper mining capital of Antofagasta, Chile, are instead finding poverty, exclusion and a precarious home in the city's growing temporary slums.
Chile, one of Latin America's most developed countries, has become a magnet in recent years for immigrants from poorer and less stable parts of the region, especially Haiti, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.
Many are attracted to this northern Chile city, close to where the majority of mines are located in the world's biggest copper exporter. Not all seek work in the mines themselves, but rather in providing the ancillary services that mushroomed during the previous decade's commodity boom.
But the end of that boom and a sharply lower copper price have hit investment and jobs, felt particularly sharply in Chile's northern provinces. While most of the country has maintained weak economic growth thanks to other industries like agriculture, Antofagasta has been plunged into recession.
A 36-year-old photographer Angela Maria Concha, who arrived in Antofagasta from Colombia three years ago, said she wanted to progress but found a different reality.
Ecuadorean Yoana Paredes, 34, who arrived in 2009 hoping to study and work, said migrants are stigmatized for being foreigners.
Paredes lives in the 'Ecuachilep campamento,' where temporary homes built from sheets of plywood and metal have sprung up in the dry desert dust, housing mainly immigrants from Andean countries.
Such camps now dot the city's outskirts.
Migrants to Chile on average have a higher level of education than Chileans, according to U.N. data. But anti-immigrant sentiment - increasingly exploited by politicians - means they are more likely to be left without work. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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