Discursos sobre la Región de Antofagasta en el contexto de la migración regional

This work aims to fill the existing gap on the social representation of regions and how it affects the process of internal migration. The case of the Region of Antofagasta, a mining region in Northern Chile, is analyzed. It is widespread the idea that this region has a negative image in the rest of the country which reduces the region appeal as a work, residence and tourism place. We did not have, however, empirical information about this image. We use the sociological discourse analysis with information obtained from six discussion groups of university undergraduates from the regions of Coquimbo, Metropolitan and Valdivia in order to (re)construct the social discourses that form the social representation of the Region of Antofagasta and mining northern Chile from the framework of work migration.