Paper short abstract:

OECD Chile is now host of a number of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. However, it has not establish a policy that would guarantee protection and sustainable integration. This paper discusses Chile in this context.

Paper long abstract:

Chile is now amongst the thirty-four countries that conform the OECD, it joined in May 2010. However, most original members of this Organisation and those which joined a few years later, have increasingly become immigration fortresses.

Historically, Chile has been both a receiving and expelling country. The latter migratory experience is found during the Pinochet regime in an unprecedented manner. Forced migration was one of the political features of the Pinochet regime. Both exile and return were managed administratively and legally. Despite that Chile is a signatory to the major international and regional instruments dealing with refugees, it still does not have an explicit migratory policy. What exists is the migratory legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship.

This paper argues that the legacy of domestic historical immigration policies and the current international scenario of increasing securitisation of state borders, particularly in OECD countries, make Chile an unwelcoming host. It therefore asks if there is a correlation between this tightening migratory scenario and the dormant Chilean migration legislation. Given this context, the second question this paper attempts to answer is 'who is doing what?'

The paper draws from my doctoral study on Chilean voluntary repatriation for conceptual analytical tools. My

thesis dealt with both moral and legal obligations.

Because this paper is part of an ongoing research project it will present some preliminary findings including the testing of the conceptual tools employed in the analysis.