UDP Internacional

19 April 2024

The International Office, the Faculty of Social Sciences and History at UDP and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS) of American University held the symposium “Migration from an interdisciplinary perspective.”

The activity was carried out on Thursday, April 18 in a hybrid format, which allowed experts of different nationalities to be convened regarding topics related to mental health in the migration phenomenon, the incidence of academic institutions in this debate and the impact of migration in the economy of the countries, among others.

Anoek van den Berg, general director of International Relations, highlighted the meeting, indicating that its holding shows how ties with American University have expanded to other areas. “This university has been our partner for more than 30 years and we are very pleased to be able to take the next steps in terms of linking research and academic training,” she said, valuing the interdisciplinary nature of the symposium. This, since academics from the faculties of Social Sciences and History, Communication and Letters, Law, and Psychology participated in the activity.

Thus, for Rossana Castiglioni, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and History, this meeting not only consolidates the relationship with American University, but also allows us to address a topic of growing relevance for the entire region. “In the Latin American context, migration has been present for a long time, but for some countries it is an emerging issue. What is clear is that this is going to be an issue of the Chilean political situation and the next electoral campaign,” she stated.

“So, I think that for the University it is particularly relevant to expose our students and academic staff to these comparative views that make us see this issue in a broader way,” she added.

In turn, Ernesto Castañeda, director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS), called for addressing the issue of migration from a broad perspective and pointed out that it is relevant to contrast views regarding this issue, above all, due to the biases that exist when analyzing it.

“Migration is not only a geographical issue, it is not only an issue of nationalities or borders (…). Many people focus or reduce international migration to the legal aspect, whether or not I can get papers to be a resident or citizen, or if I can enter a country regularly. That is the emphasis of the public discussion, but limiting the discussion to the legal aspect is very impoverishing. “Thus it is not understood that there is a human dimension, a story of families, a story of workers or about the social renewal of countries,” he stressed.

“In other words, if mobility did not exist, we would be more boring and homogeneous, there would be less innovation and, in the case of the United States, there would be no population or economic growth, but sometimes the public understands it as a threat, even though we are speaking of very small proportions compared to national populations,” the expert concluded.