{"title":"Immigration and the Boundaries of Black Political Subjecthood in Argentina and Chile","authors":"Antonia Mardones Marshall","doi":"10.1177/01979183241277544","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In the last two decades, the Argentine and Chilean states have passed laws and policies targeting Afro-descendant populations. But while Argentine law has institutionalized Afro-descent through a broad notion of African ancestry and African-based culture, the Chilean state has legally defined Afro-descent in relation to a particular history, culture, and identity connected to a long-standing presence in the national territory. In this paper, I examine the role of immigration in explaining how Afro-descendant subjecthood has been legally constructed and institutionalized in each national context. Through archival and interview-based research, I analyze how classification struggles within each Afro-descendant movement and between Afro-descendant activists and the state frame claims and strategies for legal inclusion, ultimately impacting how the boundaries of Afro-descent are defined and institutionalized in each national context. Immigrants’ early participation within the Afro-Argentine movement promoted heterogenous political framings, but feelings of threat drove some Afro-Argentine activists to emphasize nativist claims. This has produced a diversity of legislation and policies that target different populations, including immigrants—what I refer to as a “transnational-racial” model. In Chile, immigrants have not participated prominently in the Afro-descendant movement, but they have been present in the imaginaries of activists and state officials debating legislative and policy measures. Afro-Chileans’ political success requires not being seen as foreigners by state officials, driving them to emphasize their national belonging. Thus, Black subjecthood has been institutionalized targeting Afro-Chileans who share a common history and culture while excluding immigrants—what I refer to as a “national-ethnic” model.","PeriodicalId":48229,"journal":{"name":"International Migration Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Migration Review","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241277544","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the last two decades, the Argentine and Chilean states have passed laws and policies targeting Afro-descendant populations. But while Argentine law has institutionalized Afro-descent through a broad notion of African ancestry and African-based culture, the Chilean state has legally defined Afro-descent in relation to a particular history, culture, and identity connected to a long-standing presence in the national territory. In this paper, I examine the role of immigration in explaining how Afro-descendant subjecthood has been legally constructed and institutionalized in each national context. Through archival and interview-based research, I analyze how classification struggles within each Afro-descendant movement and between Afro-descendant activists and the state frame claims and strategies for legal inclusion, ultimately impacting how the boundaries of Afro-descent are defined and institutionalized in each national context. Immigrants’ early participation within the Afro-Argentine movement promoted heterogenous political framings, but feelings of threat drove some Afro-Argentine activists to emphasize nativist claims. This has produced a diversity of legislation and policies that target different populations, including immigrants—what I refer to as a “transnational-racial” model. In Chile, immigrants have not participated prominently in the Afro-descendant movement, but they have been present in the imaginaries of activists and state officials debating legislative and policy measures. Afro-Chileans’ political success requires not being seen as foreigners by state officials, driving them to emphasize their national belonging. Thus, Black subjecthood has been institutionalized targeting Afro-Chileans who share a common history and culture while excluding immigrants—what I refer to as a “national-ethnic” model.
期刊介绍:
International Migration Review is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal created to encourage and facilitate the study of all aspects of sociodemographic, historical, economic, political, legislative and international migration. It is internationally regarded as the principal journal in the field facilitating study of international migration, ethnic group relations, and refugee movements. Through an interdisciplinary approach and from an international perspective, IMR provides the single most comprehensive forum devoted exclusively to the analysis and review of international population movements.