Reconfiguraciones identitarias a partir de habitar el espacio público. el caso de los migrantes esquineros en la ciudad de Santiago, Chile

This article explores the relationship between the socioeconomic conditions of immigrants in Santiago (Chile) and the different forms of inhabiting a particular public space: a corner situated at the civic and historic center of Santiago, where immigrantsmeet on a daily basis to seek for jobs and interact with other nationals. It is argued that the ways in which this corner is inhabited become part of their migratory experience, which is lived in extremely vulnerable and precarious living and working conditions. Encountering others, finding recognition and appropriating the public space, promote the development of a collective identity. The construction of the 'we' occurs through processes of differentiation from the host society and migrant community, which, at the same time, contest forms of stigmatization, and reinforce power positions within the community. Thus, it is argued that collective identities emerge from the ways in which public spaces are inhabited and from processes of differentiation from the local population and from the migrant community itself.