Migrant Experience and Spatial Appropriations: A Visual Ethnography of the Surroundings of the Arica International Terminal (Chile)

This essay presents a visual ethnography about the movements, spatial appropriations, and the migrant urban experience surrounding the International Bus Terminal of Arica (North of Chile). The Terminal, as it is popularly known, is a trans-bordered scenario, constituting one of the urban loci that articulate the national frontiers crossing between Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Inside the Terminal, and in its vicinity, we can observe spatial appropriations carried on by migrants and autochthones, which are involved in the commercial activities between national borders or in the migrant labor market so important to Arica's economic reality. Adapted from the source document.