The increase in asylum applications in Chile has been accompanied by changes in the refugee law. Today we note that these changes are being used to perpetuate the process of waiting for a definitive response, which can be extended for a period of more than two years. This antecedent, added to the multiple irregularities that have led to recognize a crisis in the humanitarian system in Chile, put us in front of the need to investigate the ways in which bureaucratic processes are established as forms of violence that impact on the health of people who are in this condition. Based on a qualitative research, we explored what Auyero described as the “institutionalization of waiting” in refugees and its consequences on access to health, among other rights. Considering that health is one of the most critical aspects in these groups, this study analyzed the ways in which the Chilean State is generating conditions that restrict the right to health through a bureaucratic system that suspends them in a precarious state and permanent invisibility.
Carreño Calderón, A., Correa Matus, M. E., Urrutia, C., & Cabieses, B. (2021). “I suggest that you wait”: bureaucracy and health in Latin American asylum seekers and refugees in Chile. Revista Chilena De Antropología, (43), 113–130. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1472.2021.64435
