Navigating borderlands: Colombian migrant women in Chile and experiences of violence

Intra-regional migration to Chile has increased exponentially over the past decades. Today, there are over 1.25 million migrants in a country with a total population of 17.5 million. Some 150,000 of these migrants are Colombian, and almost 60% of this sub-group are women, yet there has been relatively little research on the intersection of these two potential sources of vulnerability: gender and migrant status.

Through multi-sited ethnography in Antofagasta, Chile and the Valle del Cauca, Colombia, as well as innovative participatory methods, Dr Megan Ryburn investigates the cross-border lived experiences of Colombian migrant women in Antofagasta. Her project uses the concept of "navigating borderlands" to interrogate how women negotiate spaces of structural, symbolic, and, sometimes, physical violence.

Encountering the best ways to represent the stories of these women and disseminating them are two of the main goals of this project. For this reason, one key output is an animation that was co-produced with designer Alice Volpi and Colombian migrant women in Chile. The animation tells their stories of courage and resilience in the face of multiple challenges on their journeys from the Pacific Region, Colombia to Antofagasta, Chile. Please watch and share the video to help spread these important stories.