Chile – IOM Chile will develop a cultural registry on migration in the country’s Bernardo O’Higgins region.  The project, funded by Chile’s National Council for Culture and Arts, will gather information about the artistic and cultural activities of migrants in the region and the problems that they face in accessing cultural life. The project will run until 5 December 2016.

The initiative is part of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s policy commitments to help Chile’s disadvantaged populations and support community and cultural initiatives that contribute to social integration and the strengthening of cultural diversity and identity for Chileans and migrant communities. 

The project will gather information using ethnographic fieldwork in the region’s capital Rancagua and the communes of San Fernando and Pichilemu. It will also interview staff in key institutions, community organisations and migrant leaders.

It will collect photographic evidence of migrants’ cultural activities and organize three participatory workshops in the provinces of Colchagua, Cardenal Caro and Cachapoal entitled: Cultural Encounters: Migration and its Cultural Elements in O’Higgins Region. 

Migrants make up 6 percent of the region’s population of more than 920,000 and represent 1.3 percent of Chile’s total migrant population. The majority of migrants in the region (59 percent) are South American – 22.3 percent are from Argentina, 12.2 percent from Ecuador, 11.1 percent from Peru, 9.1 percent from Colombia and 4.3 percent from Brazil.  There are slightly more women (51.2 percent) than men. Migration in the region has increased by 10.2 percent in the past ten years, according to Chile’s Annual National Migration Statistics 2005-2014.

“We invite community cultural organisations and migrant groups from all over the region to participate.  The information in the registry will help the regional government in the development of relevant policies, programmes and activities to strengthen the work of these organisations, promoting citizen participation and underlining the important role of community organisations for cultural development in the region and in the country,”  said IOM Chile Chief of Mission Norberto Girón.

The findings will allow IOM Chile to build a detailed picture of the types of actors and activities that make up migrant cultural life, and of the potential and problems of intercultural exchange in the region.

Key outputs of the project will include a written report that will be approved by the National Council for Culture and Arts; detailed data on the cultural aspect of migration in the region; and an analysis of the needs, problems and possible solutions related to the promotion of inclusion and cultural links with the local population in the region.

For further information, please contact Sebastián Mathews at IOM Chile, Tel. +56 02 9633710, Email: smathews@iom.int