The influence of integration on transnational political engagements : the Colombian community in Chile

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2010-08
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en
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This dissertation addresses different factors that influence involvement in the homeland conflict. The factors discussed (in accordance with the literature from Regts, van Houte and Ruben (2010) are: integration, perception of conflict, motivations to migrate, travel frequency and date of arrival. The assumption was that the factor integration has major influence on transnational political engagements. There were indications that it was the main factor of influence on migrants´ engagements with transnational activities in (post-) conflict countries. During the process of writing this dissertation, I discovered that the other factors play an important role as well. Therefore, I looked into all relevant factors, but the focus was placed on the presumed link between integration of migrants and refugees into new host societies and their influence on the conflict. In light of the Colombian international migration, the case study of this dissertation focused on the Colombian transnational community living in Santiago de Chile. “Involvement in the homeland conflict” is an extensive notion; this thesis focuses on the political transnational engagements. For this study the Colombian community in Chile was divided into different groups (based on Aranda & Morande, 2007): migrants and refugees. The migrants were divided on basis of their education: low skilled workers and Qualified Human Resources (QHR). The refugees were subdivided into: regular refugees, refugees participating in the Program of temporary exit of Colombians (programa de salida temporal de Colombianos, PSTC) and resettled migrants. During the research I discovered that the division of refugees into groups might be relevant for the start of their integration process, but for the complete analysis the division should have been different. The refugee group should have been divided into the same categories as the migrants; low and high skilled people. The degree of education seems to have influence on both the integration process and the perceptions people have of the conflict as well as on the engagements in transnational political activities. Where possible I tried to make the distinction between high and low skilled refugees.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen