PERUVIANS ARE NOW CHILE’S LARGEST FOREIGN WORK FORCE

Unlike most developing countries, Chile is a land of opportunity for the poor, but opportunity comes at a price. A recently released study from the Directorate of Labor (DOL), entitled “Foreign Labor in Chile,” analyzed the dramatic shifts in the immigrant work force and their working conditions, finding that Peruvians now account for 30 percent of foreign labor and occupy the most undesirable positions.

The study found that the number of Peruvians in Chile has increased five-fold in the last 10 years, going from approximately 7,500 in 1995 to 54,000 today. Forty-two percent of this growth has come in the last three years.

The high immigration rates are largely due to the poor performance of Peru’s economy. According to the World Bank, 54 percent of Peruvians live below the poverty line and 24 percent live in extreme poverty. In metropolitan regions of Peru, 9.6 percent of the population is unemployed with widespread underemployment reported in the countryside.

These poor social conditions leave many Peruvian workers exposed to exploitation both in Chile and around the world. While Chile’s DOL acknowledged that most Peruvians in Chile work without the benefits of labor contracts, Peru made international headlines last month after 560 Peruvians were deployed to Iraq to shore up troop levels of the U.S.-led coalition forces.

The Peruvians were reportedly contracted by private security firms recruiting people in third-world countries for service in Iraq. These private security firms used promises of relatively high salaries to lure the poor to sign on as mercenaries in Iraq. Most of the Peruvian men had previous military or police training and were contracted for one year at US$1,000 a month. This figure is drastically different than the amount paid to U.S. citizens with military experience with some U.S. mercenaries reportedly earning US$350,000 a month in Iraq.

This relative marginalization and exploitation of the poor is also seen inside Chile in the salaries many Peruvians receive compared to their Chilean counterparts.

“I came to Chile 10 years ago to pick fruit in the Copiapó Valley, it was unbelievable,” said Adasme Carranza, a Peruvian immigrant. “They paid us less than the Chileans, to do the same work, and often times we were robbed of our pay.”

Joaquín Cabrera, Director of the department of studies at DOL who released the labor report, corroborated Carranza’s claims. “In the rural areas, especially with the temporary workers, (employers) commit the majority of arbitrary acts and abuses with foreign workers. The workers don’t realize that there is no difference between a Chilean worker and a foreigner.”

Many Chilean employers circumvent this provision by not officially hiring the immigrants. The DOL report found that 67.1 percent of Peruvians work without the benefit of a labor contract. “Some bad employers use this to scare foreign workers into accepting poor labor conditions,” said Cabrera. “I have seen Peruvian and Bolivian temporary workers take off over the fields because they thought our labor inspectors were coming after them.”

“We are not the border patrol,” said Cabrera, “but a labor organization responsible for the preservation of workers’ rights. If employers lower working conditions for this segment, they produce uneven competition for Chileans.”

Women represent 61 percent of the Peruvian workforce in Santiago, with most employed as nannies in upscale homes in the communities of Providencia, Las Condes, and Vitacura. Work conditions in the capital are similar to the countryside where employees of the nation’s wealthiest class typically work without a labor contract and receive no pension or health benefits.

“Many employers intentionally withhold contracts or delay issuing them knowing it is impossible for their employees to do anything because they do not have their documentation in order,” said Manuel Hidalgo, representative of the Association of Peruvians in Chile.
The report noted that even for employees working under contract, the fear of losing their job and having to reinitiate their government visa applications “inhibits (foreign workers) from bringing charges against their employers of whom they are victims.”