The Affect of the State: Affective Responses to the Bureaucratic State Structures of Migration to Chile

Maria Schrupp
2021 The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography  
As human resettlement becomes increasingly frequent, it is crucial to gain a deep understanding of the affective realities of migrants. This article uses qualitative methods such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews to explore the emotions and feelings Venezuelan migrants experience during their relocation to Santiago, Chile. Fieldwork for this project took place between June and August of 2019. During this time, Chile experienced an exponential increase in migrants due to
more » ... he Venezuelan crisis and a resulting rise in social tensions. This article focuses on Venezuelan migrants' dual affective responses to the state and the bureaucratic processes they encounter as they begin to experience everyday life in Chile. Specifically, I explore narratives concerning the negative emotions experienced by Venezuelan migrants when negotiating with bureaucratic structures, and the positive emotions toward the abstract state that created and ran those structures.
doi:10.15273/jue.v11i3.11243 doaj:373927f3f8d449fd8b1a3731e8672171 fatcat:kzzcp4bsjvb57mgpeommb2fmru