Awakening Memory and Distant Membership: The Chilean diaspora in Sweden about the Student Protests in Chile

Can a citizen protest from abroad? Could recent forms of civic unrest change the way the old generations think of their past as protesters? This paper explores the reflections and degree of involvement in the Chile's student protests of Chileans living abroad. Chile had until very recently a distant relation with its expatriates as a consequence of the Dictatorship’s measures against Chileans in exile. impossibility to inherit Chilean citizenship or vote for Chilean elections from abroad presupposed a resentment among the Chilean diaspora, which was nevertheless, politically active during the Pinochet’s dictatorship. However, in the past years Chile had made a major turn by permitting nationalization of the expatriates’ children and recently allowing electoral participation from abroad. Besides, the new legislation, other aspects such as new technologies and social media could act as important tools to engage or reenchant Chilean citizens with important changes in the national society driven by civil unrest. The paper considers the Chilean diaspora in Sweden, which has been traditionally considered as the most political one by the large number of political refugees who arrived during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The student protests in 2011 came to re-awake the memory of the old political refugees living abroad who also protested and protested in their youth. Meanwhile the Chilean generation born in Sweden became suddenly interested on the events of a country that until now considered as distant. The Chilean student protests supposed a new type of engagement with Chile for some and caused a reflection that overcame old political discourses related to the Chilean dictatorship. The paper analyses empirical material collected in the form of ethnography – during open meetings of the diplomatic delegation with the community residing in Stockholm – and in-depth interviews to first and second generation Chileans in Sweden. The results suggest that social unrest and the possibility to know more about it through social media makes more visible external citizens’ interest in their distant country, influencing their desire to participate from abroad and re-interpreting old ways of protest.