Racialization of Haitian migrant childhood in Chilean schools

© 2019 Interciencia Association. All rights reserved. The aim of this study was to analyze the everyday racism and linguistic barriers faced by Haitian migrant girls and boys during their process of insertion into Chilean schools. The study is based on the approach of structural racism that generates relations of hierarchization and racialization that fall on certain bodies and originate from the colonialist ideology in Latin American states. The study was carried out through a qualitative methodology, where semi-structured interviews were applied to teachers in public schools with migrant children. It is concluded that Haitian children experience processes of racialization during their daily insertion in Chilean schools, where stereotyped and vulnerable visions of social subjects are reconstructed, in which they are placed as otherness. In turn, Haitian children face a language barrier because Spanish is the schooling language in Chile and their mother tongue is Creole; in addition, there are no intervention programs and educational policies of linguistic immersion. Besides, the lack of training and preparation in the teaching staff is recognized in terms of welcoming and integration of migrant children in an optimal way, especially those who are located in certain social, economic, phenotypic or linguistic hierarchies. All this takes place in a scenario where educational public policies are required to promote truly interculturality and school inclusion.