Tracing Diaspora and Development over Time: UK-based Chileans and their Transnational Engagements with Chile from the 1970s to the Present

Radley, Chantal (2021). Tracing Diaspora and Development over Time: UK-based Chileans and their Transnational Engagements with Chile from the 1970s to the Present. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00013724

Abstract

The Chilean diaspora in the UK has changed significantly since the 1970s. This research explores the knowledge gap that exists around the UK-based Chilean diaspora and its ongoing relationship to ‘home’ over a period which spans fifty years. From its exile origins to incorporating diverse types of migrants and taking on a considerably different form, this diaspora has evolved in parallel to Chile’s trajectory from a low to high income country. The experience of the Chilean diaspora unsettles the positive discourse around diaspora and development, exposing the assumptions it is based upon and revealing how these concepts can look from a different perspective. Through a temporally driven analysis that brings together different types of migrant in a single field of study, meanings and interpretations of what development can be are investigated from the perspective of the diaspora itself. As a mature diaspora with a firmly historical and political basis, scrutiny over a significant time span reveals the effects of political and social change at ‘home’ on and within the diaspora and their transnational modes of organisation. This historical stance reveals changing dynamics between different cohorts as their relationship to Chile is reshaped over many years. Interactions between diaspora members reveal deep rooted legacies of past political conflict which affect behaviour and practices in the present, permeating the diaspora experience. Development is seen here to be contested, fluid and personal, reflecting people’s migration experiences and life as part of diaspora space where the familiar is often simultaneously alien.