Honors Theses
Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Croft Institute for International Studies
First Advisor
Ana Velitchkova
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This study sought to determine whether public opinion in Chile had influenced the development of national immigration policies in the contemporary period. It used a comparative historical approach with a timeframe from 1989 to 2015. Because of the study's cause-and-effect element, public opinion served as the independent variable and immigration policy served as the dependent policy. The study measured public opinion through the usage of public opinion surveys previously conducted by the research institutes of The World Value Survey and Latinobarómetro Corporation. The study also synthesized written immigration policy and incorporated visa data from approved visa applications from the years 2005 to 2010. The study's main findings showed that, historically, public opinion has not influenced the development of Chilean immigration policy. In fact, international organizations such as the United Nations has historically served as an influencer on the development of immigration policy due to the historically low saliency of immigration and issues related to among the Chilean population. However, this has begun to change in the latter years of the contemporary period as the flow of immigration has magnified to the country and has become increasingly diverse in its origins and socioeconomic background. These changes coupled with others have caused saliency of the issue to increase and cause public opinion to become a growing influence on national immigration policy in the country of Chile.
Recommended Citation
Senften, Nicholas, "¡El Nuevo Chile Papi!: An Examination of the Influence of Public Opinion on the Development of Chilean Immigration Policies" (2018). Honors Theses. 736.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/736
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Comments
A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.