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Uncertain Citizenship
Everyday Practices of Bolivian Migrants in Chile
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An overview of the particular migration context under study is therefore important to understand both its specificities and the ways it fits within broader trends. In terms of Bolivian migration, it is estimated that around 706,000 Bolivians, or 6.8 percent of the Bolivian population, currently reside outside the country, although some estimates put the figure as high as 14 to 23 percent of the population.72 While historically Bolivia pursued policies of encouraging (white, elite) immigration in order to populate what was portrayed as an “uninhabited country,” for many years now it has been a country of negative net migration. This has been combined with a continuous flow of internal migration from rural to urban areas since the 1952 revolution.
As previously indicated, the effects of the revolution were complex, and its lasting impacts are debated. What is clear, however, is that the processes it set in motion sparked the beginning of a significant increase in rural-urban migration, predominantly from Aymara and Quechua communities in the western altiplano. While the agrarian reform—which was one of the major changes wrought by the revolution—did make most rural indigenous families into landowners, plots of land were not large, and they became further reduced through fragmentation due to inheritance and the population growth that followed the revolution. Combined with the increasing importance of a cash economy, the smaller size of plots made it difficult for rural indigenous inhabitants to make a living. This was particularly the case for young women, who were not necessarily favored in inheritance arrangements. They also had the greatest chance of making an income in the city, often as domestic workers, but in addition as market and street vendors. Many therefore ventured to the city as part of a family livelihood diversification strategy, or sometimes to seek a degree of independence. Thus, although both men and women left their rural communities for urban areas in large numbers from 1953 onward, young women in particular migrated.73
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