Racialized Representations of Migrants by the Local Police in Chile

In this article, we explore the racialized construction of migrants by the Carabineros, the Chilean national police. Based on a qualitative case study, we show that the representations of Latin American and Caribbean migrants by members of this institution are racialized and mostly framed on ideas of a historically constructed superiority. Drawing on interviews with police personnel from different units in Santiago, Chile, we show how the historical state racist policies on migration and systemic institutional racism are embedded in the Carabineros’ discourse, who represent the state and law in their everyday interactions with migrants. Historically, this institution continues to be a strongly hierarchical and militarized police force, whose mission has been to defend territorial integrity and the moral, socio-historical, and cultural national identity, as well as to uphold the most important values of the so-called Chilenidad. We argue that the Chilean police frame their racialized representations of Latin American and Caribbean migrants within systemic institutional racism and socio-historical tropes, particularly from racialized, class, and moral perspectives that reproduce anti-immigrant sentiments and illustrate the ways in which migrants have been historically criminalized and treated in everyday life.