Racism and Resistances among Haitian people in Santiago de Chile from an Intersectional Perspective

Abstract

The main aim of this work is to understand the experiences of racism among the Haitian migrant community in Chile, from an intersectional perspective. We focus on their oppressive experiences, as well as their resistance to these experiences. We carried out a qualitative study with 16 Haitian people (10 men and 6 women), between 21 and 44 years old, living in Santiago de Chile, with whom we conducted a total of 29 semi-structured in-depth interviews. We carried out a thematic content analysis from an intersectional perspective. Our results show that our participants have experienced structural racism, overt prejudice and internalized racism. Skin colour appears as the most important racial marker, and is articulated with their nationalities, migrant status and/or sex-gender. Also, we account for the phenomenon of sexualized racialization towards Haitian men. Finally, we describe resistances, some of which show a knowledge about the positive socio-historical positions of Haitian individuals. Thus, we investigate resistant and incipient social identities configured around skin colour and Haitian nationality. As suggestions for future research, we believe it is relevant to extend the study of racism in Chile from the field of international migration, taking into account the racialized structures within which racism is exercised towards migrants, as well as towards indigenous people, Afro-Chileans or dark-skinned mestizo Chileans. With this work, we seek to highlight the presence and consequences of racism in Chile and promote the integral integration of the Haitian community.