Columbia undergraduate Astrid Liden, who is majoring in Latin American & Caribbean Studies and Political Science, has arrived to Chile to perform field research on her thesis which looks to address how the country’s migration policy interacts with the family unit from Venezuela.
“Chile is one of the top receivers of Venezuelan migrants in the region and has responded with more restrictive migration policy, most recently through the 2022 Ley de Migración y Extranjería,” according to Liden’s research abstract. “The central tenet of this research project is the interaction of the state with the family, vis a vis migration policy, and how the state either facilitates or prevents family migration and reunification.”
During her stay in Chile, Liden will be interviewing Venezuelan adult migrants in Chile, NGO leaders from both religious and non-religious organizations, as well as government officials from Chile’s Ministry of Social Development and Family who work directly with migrants and family migrant policy. “This study will look to uncover how personal and family relations motivate both forced migration and national integration,” she said.
Liden, who is also a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow, has worked on campus with the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) and in an internship position at the Jesuit Service for Migrants (SJM) in Chile, which the Santiago Center helped to arrange for her. She is specializing in human rights and migration, looking to pursue a career in human rights, with a focus on the Venezuelan migration crisis in Latin America.
She will perform her research in Chile for the next two months.
