Currently there are more than one million foreigners in Chile. Although, the New Immigration Policy has allowed more than 264 thousand immigrants to regularize their situation in Chile, during the last months, this does not ensure that the living conditions of them and their families are adequate. Fundación Colunga supports various projects that take care of the needs and urgencies that this scenario poses.

The Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) promotes and protects the dignity and rights of people who migrate to Chile, accompanying their process of social inclusion, through a multidimensional work model and influencing society to recognize the richness of human diversity.

The initiative supported by the Colunga Strengthening Fund, "Intercultural and inclusive work spaces", seeks to generate spaces of intermediation between companies and migrants. Intermediation that translates into: Training of migrant people in labor skills, language and labor legislation; awareness and advice to companies in the hiring process. All this under a protocol of accompaniment from the intercultural perspective, promoting decent work standards.

Photo: Jesuit Migrant Service

The project also includes an incidence line, where they have formed a Network of Intercultural Companies with a specific guideline, in order to generate proposals for improvement in public policy.

Another organization that also receives support from the Colunga Strengthening Fund is City of the Child Foundation. The project "Kelmy: an App for the social inclusion of migrant and refugee children" that seeks to connect migrant and refugee children, with the host society, through digital technology. Together with the municipality of Estación Central they started this project, which will work with the 15 municipal educational establishments of the commune. And something very rescatable is that it invites the children and adolescents themselves to think about their lives and promote spaces and forms of integration.

Photo: Project Kelmy Launch

Synergies in the Colunga Network

ColungaHUB It is a collaborative work platform that offers spaces, training, meeting and debate among diverse actors of civil society, academia, the public and private sectors. Within the organizations that are part of the community, Interpretative Foundation It stands out for its focus on migration.

This organization seeks to improve the migratory context through social innovation, technologies and communications. They have launched three applications with relevant and reliable information on Chile, as a measure of support in the process of integration into the country. T-zen for the Haitian community, Salam for Arabic-speaking refugees and migrants and I Migro for the Spanish-speaking community.

Beside Pro Bono Foundation, an organization that is also part of ColungaHUB, joined together to develop the legal information of the Salam application. In addition, they have generated an alliance where they are referred to cases of migrants who do not have access to legal support.

Fundación Pro Bono, which promotes and facilitates equal access to justice for people, vulnerable groups and social organizations, has continued to support the migrant population. They delivered during this week, together with the Jesuit Migrants Service, a series of modifications to the Migration Law project, to ensure the fundamental rights of migrants.