Multiple Bordering and Illegalized Migrations in South America

In this article, we analyze the processes of multiple bordering experienced by families of irregularized Venezuelans in South America. We distinguish three interwoven bordering processes: social boundaries, international geopolitical borders, and interior frontiers. We adopted an ethnographic approach, with six months of fieldwork with Venezuelan families living in tomas–informal settlements–in northern Chile. We show that Venezuelan migration, particularly after 2017, constitutes a survival migration involving social groups suffering hunger and health problems and even death, resulting from lack of access to food and medical care. Material and symbolic resources that shape this social displacement condition the degree of friction migrants experience with borders across South America. In the tomas, although conditions of precariousness vary, urban segregation and rejecting affects toward migrants impact them in a widespread manner. We conclude that the category of “irregularised migrant” is only one stage within a broader process of social selection that produces bordered subjects.