The MIGRA Millennium Nucleus seeks to advance understanding of the social, institutional, and economic consequences of recent waves of immigration to Chile—a country that has become one of the leading destinations for migrants in Latin America. In just over a decade, the foreign-born population has grown from less than 2% in 2010 to approximately 7–8% in 2022. This dramatic shift has occurred in a context of ongoing social, cultural, and institutional change, giving rise to both integration challenges and new tensions with local communities.
MIGRA aims to investigate the impacts of immigration on key dimensions of social wellbeing—labor markets, education, health, security, and access to justice. We focus especially on understanding the drivers of public attitudes toward migrants and identifying strategies to address misalignments between perception and reality.
The Millennium Nucleus MIGRA is a research center funded by the Millennium Science Initiative of Chile’s National Agency for Research and Development (ANID). Its core mission is to advance understanding of the consequences of recent waves of immigration to Chile—a country that has experienced one of the most rapid demographic shifts in Latin America.
Over the past decade, the share of migrants in Chile has quintupled, rising from 2% to nearly 10% of the population, marking the most profound socio-demographic transformation in the country’s recent history. By 2022, 19% of all newborns in Chile had a migrant mother, with figures approaching 50% in certain regions. This unprecedented change presents complex challenges for migrant integration and social cohesion.
Since its founding three years ago, MIGRA has generated novel, policy-relevant evidence on the multifaceted impacts of immigration in Chile and the barriers that hinder effective integration.
MIGRA’s guiding hypothesis is that the effects of immigration depend critically on how migrants are incorporated into local institutions and communities—a process shaped by three key factors, which also form the backbone of MIGRA’s research agenda:
The Millennium Nucleus MIGRA is hosted by four leading Chilean institutions:
These institutions provide the academic, administrative, and infrastructural support necessary for MIGRA’s operations, fostering an environment of interdisciplinary collaboration. Their combined expertise across law, social sciences, economics, and regional studies strengthens MIGRA’s capacity to address the complex challenges posed by contemporary migration and ensures the project’s deep integration into both national and international academic networks.
Our work is important, so we appreciate it if you cite the use of the code and figures available in this repository.
MIGRA, N. (2024). MIGRA Repository (Version 2.0.4) [Computer software].
@software{MIGRA_Repositorio_MIGRA_2024,
author = {MIGRA, NÚCLEO},
month = may,
title = {MIGRA Repository},
version = {2.0.4},
year = {2024}
}
