Internal migration in Chile and the psychosocial well-being of families-of-origin

ABSTRACT

The understanding of the complex relationship between migration and different dimensions of well-being is still limited. This article applies the framework of psychosocial well-being to analyze the impact of migration on families-of-origin in Chile, using qualitative data collected in four municipalities experiencing high levels of net emigration. We consider four dimensions of psychosocial well-being: material, emotional, psychological and social. Findings show that migration generates large material and emotional costs for families-of-origin while providing no obvious material benefits at least in the short-term. For parents, being able to support their children’s migration, as a way to provide them with better opportunities in a context where local options are limited, appears to contribute to their life purpose, sense of mastery and agency, all important aspects of psychological well-being. Our findings reinforce the importance of analyzing the impact of migration using a multidimensional and holistic perspective, because it affects different aspects of well-being in different ways, reflecting the complex interconnections between individual and social experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Internal migration
• psychosocial well-being
• Chile

Acknowledgements

Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee at RIMISP – Latin American Center for Rural Development and at the Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile) and all the participants signed a freely-given informed consent to participate in the study. All the participants signed a freely-given informed consent to participate in the study, which included consent to the publication of the results of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available in order to respect the privacy of the study participants but are available in anonymized form from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

1 The four population censuses allow constructing inter-municipal migration matrices mapping population flows at two points in time: 1977–1982; 1987–1992; 1997–2002; and 2012–2017.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is a product of the research project ‘Internal migration in Chile and the communities left behind’, FONDECYT INICIACIÓN Number 11170309, funded by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID, Chile).