Resumen

LIBERONA CONCHA, Nanette. Strainer frontier and the desert as allied: Institutional racist practices in the entry to Chile. Polis [online]. 2015, vol.14, n.42, pp.143-165. ISSN 0718-6568.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-65682015000300008.

Crossing frontiers between countries implies the presentation of documentation, which is required by the legal framework of each State that establishes requirements for the entry of foreigners into the country. This research focuses on the border between Chile and Bolivia, and seeks to observe how these requirements are applied, how the procedures are met and how public officials from the Colchane Border Complex relate to the foreigners “users”. After an ethnographic analysis, it can be concluded that the situation is complex: on the one hand, we found irregularities in the process of entry into the country; arbitrariness and transgression of the law are committed in order to refuse the authorization of entry of certain people. These are characterized by racist events that are the provider of entry authorization to primarily a specific population: the Colombian Afro-descendants. On the other hand, this population is not willing to turn around and become “bounced”, stranded in the desert, which becomes an ally, through the clandestine entry.

Palabras clave : migration control; racism; border; people traffick.

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