The migratory process of mapuche population in Chile: its adaptation and integration to the urban life

Abstract

The mapuche population, characterized and defined by their ethnic condition, is one of the three and more numerous ethnic groups that still remains in Chile. Historically localized in the South of the country , in the regions VIII, IX and X, this population has emigrated from these regions to the big urban areas. Due to the increasing flows, their spatial mobility has become dinamically complex, generating important demografic and socioeconomic impacts, both in the areas of sending-off and reception. This paper aims to determinate and evaluate the flows of internal migration of this ´mapuche´ ethnic group, and to analyze the push and pull factors that determinate the migratory flows in Chile between the two last Census. We also examinate the problems that the mapuche population has to face in the urban environment; for this we will take as an example the main region of attraction of population in Chile -metropolitan region of Santiago-, which concentrates the largest number of mapuche immigrant population.