In 2025, Chile will continue to have one of the most solid and recognized research groups on migration in the country: the Millennium Nucleus MIGRA has been renewed for three more years by the Millennium Science Initiative, part of the Centers Subdirectorate of the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), under the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation.
MIGRA’s purpose is to study the consequences and perceptions of migration in Chile from a multidisciplinary approach, combining the languages and methodologies of several social sciences, including economics, sociology, demography, anthropology, law, and social work. One of its core objectives is to identify the frictions that prevent a satisfactory integration of the migrant population in the country. What legal, institutional, and cultural barriers exist? How do local communities interpret and perceive migration? What works, what does not, and why, for an effective integration of migrants in Chile? The goal: to produce useful, comparable, and actionable evidence.
According to Raimundo Undurraga, professor at the Department of Industrial Civil Engineering at the University of Chile and director of the Nucleus:
“MIGRA was born three years ago with the conviction that migration is here to stay. We set out to examine the role of legal, institutional, and cultural frictions that shape the integration of migrants in Chile. We identified gaps in schools, companies, hospitals, public services and neighborhoods, and revealed how misperceptions and discrimination limit the potential contribution of migrants to the country’s development. Migration, however, has changed in a matter of years, and so have the country and its territories. If some time ago the urgency was to understand the impact of massive migration flows, today the priority is to distinguish regular from irregular migration, border territories from non-border territories, or first versus second generation migrants and how they help counteract declining fertility. The renewal of the Nucleus has that focus. A rigorous examination of the impact of migration requires looking at the heterogeneity of the migrant population and its contexts of reception, what each territory offers (or not) in terms of institutions and communities, and what we can do as a State to promote a legislative framework and public policies that facilitate their national and regional integration. Migration is a necessary condition for development, and Chile is no exception. The question is how to channel that contribution. That is our work.”
In this new period, the deputy direction of the Nucleus will be based in Arica, led by University of Tarapacá scholar Andrea Alvarado, who notes:
“The renewal of MIGRA fills us with pride as much as it challenges us. We are proud because in these three years we developed systematic work, consolidated learning and evidence-based knowledge, and strengthened a solid and projected interdisciplinary team.”
She adds:
“At the same time, migration is a topic where emotion-based positions abound, and our role as a Millennium Nucleus is to generate knowledge sustained in scientific evidence that contributes to the public debate.”
Placing this deputy direction at the northern border is part of a thesis MIGRA has already tested: place matters. Andrea explains:
“One of the learnings we consolidated in the first stage is that the reception context shapes how migrants experience life in Chile. This means, simply put, that analyzing migration requires looking at its incorporation across different regions and territories.”
And regarding what is coming next, she adds:
“For this second stage we proposed an annual Latin American Summer School on Migration Research.”
For Patricio Domínguez, professor at the School of Engineering at PUC and MIGRA researcher, this renewal “is recognition for a group that began as assistant professors at the start of their academic careers and today already includes promoted academics, school leadership positions, and public presence in the migration debate.”
Alejandra Abufhele, from the School of Government, and Mayra Feddersen, from the Law School at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, represent UAI within MIGRA. In this sense, Feddersen states:
“Migration is a matter of national relevance. The research we generate and our contribution to the public debate will be vital in the next three years.”
Meanwhile, Pablo Muñoz, professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Chile, emphasizes that “in this new stage we expect to continue providing evidence for an informed public debate and for the design of effective integration policies.”
From the UC School of Social Work, Olaya Grau recalls that migration “generates tensions, myths, and mistakes in how it is interpreted —and from academia we can generate evidence that enables a more complex understanding, closer to society.”
In turn, Antonia Mardones, professor at the University of Tarapacá in Arica and MIGRA researcher, notes:
“This renewal is an opportunity to deepen the territorial lens on migration. Locating the deputy direction in Arica —a border region and real node of intercultural coexistence— allows us to place at the center the fact that the migratory experience is not the same across Chile. Our challenge now is to produce evidence that speaks from the territories and toward them, strengthening the connection between academia, communities, and public institutions to move toward more just and inclusive policies.”
MIGRA does not only produce papers: it produces territorial connection
The Nucleus did not stay at the desk. In these first three years, it led direct initiatives with migrant communities: a School for Young Migrant Researchers, a documentary produced in Alto Hospicio, and the upcoming release of a photobook created by migrant youth from Cerro Chuño (Arica) and Alto Hospicio (Iquique). In addition, MIGRA was awarded two PME (External Projection) projects —both with the maximum amount— which institutionally validates this bet on research that connects with civil society and territory.
Today MIGRA is not only research: it is socio-scientific infrastructure. It is DataMigra (https://www.datamigra.cl/), it is public indicators, it is experiments and comparative studies, and it is a team that produces knowledge to foster better debate.
In a country where many conversations about migration start from intuition or emotion, having an institution capable of producing sustained evidence over time is not only good news for academia: it is good news for democracy and its institutions.
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}
}