Young Spanish migrants in Chile: between professional growth and a lack of social welfare
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Abstract
The present paper, based on a research carried out in Chile between March and June 2016, on the one hand studies the sociodemographic characteristics and the profiles of those Spanish citizens who obtained their resident visa during the period 2010 2015 and, on the other hand, tries to understand the migration processes and the sociocultural insertion of those migrants. The first goal is achieved by analyzing the statistics provided by the Chilean Department of alien status and migration. The second one has been carried out following the procedures of the Grounded Theory to analyze the discourses obtained through a discussion group and eleven in depth interviews with Spanish residents in Chile. The age of the participants was between 25 and 35 years, they had an university degree, and arrived in the country between 2010 and 2015. Through these analyses, the research shows how Spanish migration is composed mainly of young people qualified in technical professions like engineering, architecture or geology. Likewise, the way in which these migrants –self styled ‘labor exiles’– seem to follow a socio cultural insertion in Chilean society that we could define as nostalgic and which is characterized, mainly, by the idealization of the context of departure and return, becomes evident.